I am pleased to announce that I’ll be leading a symposium at the upcoming 8th International Marine Conservation Congress in Scotland! We’ll be discussing new developments and emerging trends in the field of ocean science and conservation communication, and will produce a multi-coauthor peer reviewed scientific journal manuscript. Here’s how to sign up to present.
What is IMCC? The International Marine Conservation Congress is a once-every-two-years conference focusing on ocean conservation science, policy, and education. It’s extremely interdisciplinary and student friendly, and it’s one of my favorite meetings. I served as the Science Officer for IMCC7 in 2024 in South Africa, IMCC8 will be in Scotland in November! Learn more here:
What is an IMCC symposium? A symposium at IMCC is defined as a series of talks organized by a speaker around specific topics or themes. My symposium is open, which means that anyone can apply to join it, though I make those decisions. (You are not required to reach out to me in advance to see if your proposed talk would be a good fit, but I would encourage you to do so).
What is my IMCC symposium? It’s called “Ocean Science Communication: What’s New and What’s Next?” Here is the abstract I submitted: “”Making marine science matter” requires taking scientific expertise out of the ivory tower and communicating it to stakeholders, the public, and decisionmakers. Science communication has been integral to IMCC since the beginning, but in recent years there have been massive changes to the public science engagement landscape. This symposium, which will feature experts from academia, the environmental sector, and government, will highlight new tools, case studies for success, and expert perspectives on the changing public science engagement landscape. It will include specific, actionable steps the IMCC community can take to more effectively communicate their science to key stakeholders and end users. This symposium will also be tied to a focus group, which will have a goal of creating a multi-coauthor scientific paper for journal publication.”
What sort of talks are welcome in my symposium? We are looking for any talk that focuses on communication ocean science or conservation to stakeholders from any speaker, be they from a university, an environmental non-profit, a government agency, or more. Talks can focus on a case study, a new tool, emerging trends, or retrospectives. Talks will be 12 minutes except for a few invited longer talks, and some speakers will be asked to sit on a panel at the end. Again, please feel free to reach out to me if you think you might have a talk that’s a good fit.
What’s the focus group? IMCC defines focuse groups as bringing people together for a focused, moderated discussion with the goal of creating tangible and actionable outputs. In our case, our focus group will aim to create a multi-coauthor scientific journal publication that summarized some key themes and take-aways from the symposium. You need not be a speaker in the symposium to participate in the focus group, everyone who is a speaker in the symposium will be invited to participate in the focus group.
How do I submit my abstract? Abstracts are due May 15th. Please submit abstract at the IMCC abstract submission page here. You will need to make an online profile.
Make sure to indicate that you want to participate in my open symposium. Do this by clicking “no” for “is this part of a closed symposium,” then selecting “ocean science communication, what’s new and what’s next” for “Please select your first choice for the session or open symposium that you’d like your presentation to be a part of.”
Even if you didn’t run your idea by me in advance, please be sure to reach out to me to let me know that you submitted it so I know to be on the lookout for it!
Please let me know if you have any questions, I can be reached at WhySharksMatter @ gmail.
I hope to see you in Scotland this fall!