#ESA2017 Recap: ESA wants your feedback, loads of #SciComm activities, #SciArt, meetings & more
Standing room only at the Section booth during #sketchyourscience! (Image: Bethann Garramon Merkle)
A lot of great opportunities came up during #ESA2017.
These include the Section identifying several volunteer positions and opportunities, looking ahead to #ESA2018 (help us plan and collaborate for next year!), developments in our governance and long-range planning (see our About page for updates), and new officers (meet them here)! You can stay up to date on these topics and many others by subscribing to our newsletter.
ESA is soliciting feedback regarding this year’s conference.
If you have opinions, please complete the survey. Be specific about what you liked to help ensure it happens again. Ditto for things you don’t want to happen again.
We’re curious – which #ESA2017 or scicomm-related hashtags did you use and follow, and why?
The #EngageESA hashtag took off this year, and there was also steady activity for #ESASciComm and #sketchyourscience. Emily Rollinson (@ejrollinson) has run stats of ESA conference tweets for the past few years. Check out the stats for #ESA2017, #ESASciComm and #EngageESA. Knowing these trends along with other ways you engaged with conference and Section activities is helpful for us as we plan how the Section can connect with you throughout the coming year. Please let us know via email, at our Facebook Group, or on Twitter (using #ESASciComm and/or #EngageESA to ensure we see your response).
We hosted seven events, and there were more than 50 SciComm/Engagement sessions on the program!
These included a productive Section business meeting, three workshops, a live science storytelling show, and several rounds of networking. And we can’t forget yet another year of lively and informative #sketchyourscience. It’s exciting to be part of the building momentum to celebrate, professionalize, and make more accessible the myriad ways that science communication and engagement efforts are a core part of the work so many ESA members do. We were in great company, with those of you who made it to Portland, and with a lot of other folks who organized communication-related sessions. When we looked through the program, we found 7 social events, 21 workshops, 7 ignite sessions, 6 special sessions, 5 symposia, and at least 7 talks and posters (though we likely underestimated those)!
SciArt or Art-and-Ecology Section
Two back-to-back Ignite sessions focused on art and science stimulated talk of a SciArt or Art-and-Ecology Section. Some folks floated the idea of starting a new section, others the idea of making space for #sciart within the SciComm Section. While current officers were supportive of either approach, members at our business meeting were largely in favor of joining forces and making SciArt part of the SciComm Section. So, we’ll be reaching out to folks this year to explore what that might look like.
Among the many meetings your section officers attended…
We went to the annual ESA business meeting and the business meeting for the ESA Committee on Diversity and Education (CDE). We’re a new member of the CDE, and we look forward to having a voice in the important work of the committee. If you have topics you’d like us to address, Bethann will be on some conference calls and at some meetings with the CDE through the coming year. Please contact her so we can represent you and our section mission in those meetings.