Wrap-up: Science communications and media training workshop

“The great beautiful desk that is nature.” —Cyril Laplane
“Nobody knows what’s going on.  No, the horse does know.” —Anindya Sundar Paul
“Fire can only enhance this situation.” —Carolyn Wood

These are just some of the incredible soundbites from the improvised ‘powerpoint roulette’ talk exercise participants undertook as part of the science communications and media training workshop, 12–14 February in Brisbane.
 
Each person had to talk for 90 seconds about a topic they received as the stopwatch started, against a backdrop of 3 random images.  The point of the exercise was to practice improvisation (a great skill for life as well as science communication), improve attendees’ ability to keep going when something goes wrong, gain confidence speaking with little (or, in this case, no) preparation and get over any fear of embarrassing yourself in front of a group.  It’s also very fun!
 
And everyone did an amazing job—a sign of what was to come at the ‘graduation’ event later that day.
 
Another highlight was Lachlan Rogers bringing a top hat all the way from Newcastle, just for the gag.  For those who know Lachlan, you’ll appreciate his love for and skill at proselytising his passions. 

Image from the Wikipedia article on “soapbox”, along with Lachlan’s request

Silliness aside, we were lucky enough to have Associate Professor Alice Motion—Westpac Research Fellow, Deputy Director (External Engagement and Academic Development) Sydney Nano Institute, and lead of the Science Communication, Outreach, Participation and Education (SCOPE) research group—attend the first two days of the workshop, and deliver an opening keynote based on their extensive experience in science communication and outreach.
 
A key take-away was the ‘AEIOU’ of science communication—awareness, enjoyment, interest, opinion and understanding—a reminder that there are very useful forms of science communication beyond those which attempt to educate, or create understanding.  Another was the goal of creating a culture of science, where people engage with and understand science as being a cultural phenomenon, similar to art or music.
 
But the majority of the workshop was spent working on articles and 3-minutes talks.  These articles will all be published on the EQUS website over the coming weeks.  We hope some will also be picked up by The Conversation, Phys.org or other media outlets.
 
The 3-minute presentations delivered at the graduation event included future 3MT entries, pitches to industry, a pub talk, a radio interview and (long) elevator pitches for other EQUS members.  We were very impressed with the standard, especially given the short timeframe people had to write, refine and rehearse their talks.
 
We look forward to hopefully seeing and hearing more EQUS research in the media.  We also look forward to hearing about people taking their presentations to 3MT competitions, pubs, EQUS workshops and more.  And next time, we’ll get Lachlan a soapbox to go with his hat.
 
This workshop was funded and delivered by EQUS’ Public Engagement Portfolio.

Attendees after the workshop, modelling Lachlan’s hat

Testimonials

“The SciComms workshop was unarguably one of the best workshops I've ever been part of.  I had equal amounts of learning and fun from the 3 days of the event.  The best part of the event was the fact that we spent more time honing our skills and working on the craft, rather than listening to the speakers most of the time.  The improv round would probably be my favourite just because of the sheer unflitered thoughts coming out of everyone, and landing one punchline every 10 seconds.  The brainstorming session for outreach activities yielded new ideas from everyone, and I am pretty sure we can bring a lot of them to light.  Many thanks to the organisers for pulling up an amazing workshop.”

“I had a great time at this workshop.  I liked the balance of talks and free writing time.  The invited speakers were also great; their talks provided lots of food for thought.  I particularly liked the insight into the workings of mass media.  I appreciated having Alice Motion in the room to add their ideas to discussions and provide a ‘beyond physics’ perspective.  Ben’s morning improv exercise came at a great time in the week.  Always good to meet people from other nodes in a more relaxed setting than the annual workshop.”