Last Friday, Rosie and I went to the “Evolving Science Communication” Conference organised by the Science Communication Unit of University of West England (UWE). We recognised some familiar faces, met a few new ones and enjoyed a varied and interesting event.
The conference kicked off with a plenary about the international perspectives and opportunities for Science Communication, a master class from Frank Burnet; founder of UWE’s Science Communication Unit, co-director of Cheltenham Science Festival, and international Science Communication consultant. I took home several messages from his talk, but the main one was that we should work internationally to explore new cultural dimensions, face new professional challenges and access alternative funding streams.
The core of the conference was built around the experiences of different graduates from UWE’s Science Communication Master Programme, who covered a variety of topics: from the image problems around engineering, to the use of playful approaches to public engagement or how to engage with “hard to reach audiences”.
For the first time, we encountered the PechaKucha presentation format, which ended up working particularly well. We loved it, maybe a little bit stressful for the presenter, but undoubtedly more engaging for the audience.
Imran Khan, Chief Executive of the British Science Association, lead the final plenary entitled “Science; not just for scientists” in which he made several very good points, my favourite one being that presenting science as dynamic, tentative and emergent – rather than static or indelible – may increase citizens’ trust in it.
I’m a Scientist poster
After the closing remarks, it was time for wine, and talk… and poster presentations. It was nice to present our latest results on how I’m a Scientist positively changes students’ attitudes towards science, and increases scientists’ involvement in public engagement. We got questions about how we reach students from people starting new communication projects, a couple of scientists asked about how to sign in to take part in future events, and someone suggested creating an new project called “I’m a Mathematician, Get me out of here!”.
Before we realised, it was already time to leave. A full new weekend was ahead of us, and plenty of things to share on our Monday catch up at the office.
If you want to read more about this conference, we have created a Storify of it.
