Open Mic Night host Richard Alley. Credit: Shane M Hanlon

By Shane M Hanlon

Now that the holiday season is (largely) over, we’re reflecting here at Sharing Science on the successes of Fall Meeting and where we go from here.

So, Fall Meeting. While we’re still counting the numbers, we’re certain that more folks passed through our doors/events this year than ever before. So, thank you! And we’re learning what people want:

• Arts: Our How to Sketch Your Science workshop w/ JoAnna Wendel & James Tuttle Keane was so popular that folks were sitting on the floor. Our Open Mic Night was a raucous time. The Story Collider show was standing room only. Our Sketch Your Science wall filled up. We’ve heard you loud and clear – more of this please.
• Social Media: We are ever grateful for Wendy Bohon & Beth Bartel for running Social Media 101 & 201 workshops. In addition to the great resources they provided, you can find ours here.
• Storytelling: This is near and dear to my heart as our Tell Me a Story workshop was packed, I told a story at Open Mic Night, and co-hosted/produced the Story Collider show sponsored by GoMRI & C-Image (that featured some of our Voices for Science Advocates!). More storytelling to come this year, hopefully in the form of dedicated workshops, webinars, and materials.
  

  Voices for Science Advocate Paula Buchanan telling a story at the Story Collider show. Credit: Lauren Lipuma

• Multimedia: While we still understand the need to train for core scicomm skills, we’re seeing a push in the direction of using multimedia to convey science to broader audiences. Fall Meeting reflected this. We started out the week with a Sharing Storytelling through Multimedia which touched on telling science stories via video, audio, photo, and drawings. Then we dove deeper throughout the week when filmmaker Ryan Vachon taught folks how to shoot/edit video, Ryan Haupt & Jackson Watkins did some live podcast creation, Lauren Lipuma & I interviewed AGU President Robin Bell for our Third Pod from the Sun podcast, and AGU Cinema was a smash hit. We currently offer multimedia workshops and are looking to create more materials, webinars, and showcase more examples through our social media channels.
• Up-Goer Five: Holy cow, we’re always overwhelmed (in a good way!) but the response we get to our Up-Goer Five session. The talks were great, the room was packed, and you’ll definitely see this in future years!

This is just a small roundup of our Fall Meeting. Stay tuned for exciting things in 2020 and in the meantime, follow us @AGU_SciComm and check out our resources on our website!

–Shane M Hanlon is the Program Manager for AGU’s Sharing Science Program. Find him @EcologyOfShane.