For the people that want to host a coffee morning, see below for some advice and tips on how you could set this up. Please note that all coffee morning formats are welcome and can be created by you as the host as you wish. The format will likely depend on the number of participants you expect. The main goal of the coffee mornings is to bring women in crop science together in an informal setting to spark discussion among peers. Here are some ideas to help you get started to organize a local Coffee Morning event within your organisation or local area with the aim of networking and connecting people:

• Seminar or presentation – Invite a speaker to start of the coffee morning and discuss a (work or non-work related) topic.
• Open or Round-table discussion with flipboard questions –  Some examples:
  • What career development opportunities would you like to see?
  • What would you like in a mentor? What could a mentor help you with? (e.g., see a recent summary of CIMMYT Nairobi discussions)
  • How can we actively promote and elevate women’s roles, presence, and voices in science?
  • What are key barriers for growing the women in crop science community?
• Book/paper reading or book review – Some examples that we have found interesting or useful lately include:
  • How bullying becomes a career tool
  • To advance equality for women, use the evidence
  • Scientific collaborations are precarious territory for women
  • Insights into Sexism: Male Status and Performance Moderates Female-Directed Hostile and Amicable Behaviour
  • How can crop science cultivate more “Strong Female Leads”
• Panel session with a few speakers (for larger groups)
• Q&A session with a person within or outside your organization – E.g., you could do an interview with someone in your local community (see a recent example here)
• Open format – simply bringing people together and providing space for coffee and conversations.

All coffee morning events are organized voluntarily and financial support is not available. It is worth discussing this with your organization in case they have budget available to support and help promote your event. If not, we would suggest you could invite participants to bring along their own drinks and/or food to share. Please share pictures on social media using the hashtags, #GlobalWiCScoffee and #WiCS, so we all feel connected to our peers globally! Why not write a short report about your event and the outcomes afterwards? If you would like to do this we encourage you to post it to the Women in Crop Science Community on Zenodo . Please feel free to contact Julie for support with this (womenincropscience@gmail.com).