2008: International Year of...

In case you didn't know, the General Assembly of the United Nations has designated 2008 as:

International Year of Sanitation
http://esa.un.org/iys/

International Year of Languages
http://www.unesco.org/

International Year of Planet Earth
http://yearofplanetearth.org/index.html

and

International Year of the Potato
http://www.potato2008.org

It's not unusual for the UN to give more than one designation to any one year.

Why should you care? Because these designations offer very easy opportunities for you to tie your efforts into international campaigns that are supported with public service announcements, billboards, special events, press attention, etc. The web sites associated with such usually welcome press releases, articles and photos from your efforts that are somehow related to whatever cause it is they are promoting, and passing such on to them is a good way to reach a very large audience about your efforts. And if you put "In association with the International Year of..." in your press releases, Flickr photo descriptions, YouTube uploads, web pages, etc., you get even more attention to your efforts.

Just a thought for the day (or maybe the year).

Here's why to find a list of all UN designated days, weeks, years and decades:
http://www.unac.org/en/news_events/un_days/index.asp