Social media was a pivotal factor for the success of the first Vienna Ball of Sciences in January 2015: the ball’s Facebook page encountered an incredible 1.2 million contacts in the ten weeks run-up to the ball. Accordingly, we will pay social media even more attention this year. To this end we have managed to secure the services of one of the most exciting English-speaking bloggers/posters/social media socialites (I am using the comparative here because she is known to her friends for her natural reticence) surfing the parties, bars, restaurants and spinning studios of Vienna.

Please welcome with me Tova Marr, founder and CEO of Operation Tubetop, the hilarious and heart-breaking, maddening and moving  Chronique Viennoise on–in her own words–”life in Vienna as an expat, mom, wife, bringer of wine to parties and lover of bling, heels and cheese.” Tova will accompany the entries on the ball’s website and the postings in social media with her incorruptable taste regarding all things bright and shiny, her unquenchable desire for the not-so-newsworthy and her unstoppable fondness  for the falacies of Vienna. She displayed all these qualities in her reporting on the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Vienna  publishing as #ESCbitch for the blogazine Vienna Würstelstand. Tova’s entries on the Vienna Science Ball 2016 will be marked with ™ although any of her contributions will be easily recognizable for their wit, charm and very loud laughter.