UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE SESSION: Communications Training [22 January 2018]

Communications training (social media and blogging) session organized prior to the “Greening Agri-food Systems, Ensuring Rural Sustainability and Promoting Healthy Socioeconomic Transformation in South-East Asia”

22 January 2017, 16:00-18:00 in Room 1213 (12th Floor) of the Chulalongkorn University School of Agricultural Resources (CUSAR), Wittayakit Bldg., Phyathai Rd., SIAM SQUARE, (same building as British Council), Pathumwan (Soi Chulalongkorn 64)

The Center for Social Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University (CSDS) and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) are proud to announce a special communications training for researchers and academics to kick off the the upcoming Greening Agri-food Systems Conference. 

To engage audience and communicate effectively, your scientific messages need to be concise and clear. It is about making the audience understand why your research matter. It takes real skill to be an effective communicator, skills that must be developed and refined on an on-going basis. It is when scientific messages are communicated effectively across disciplines that science flourishes, and it advances uptake, collaboration and dialogue. Today, social media is one of the most common form for news and information uptake. People turn to Facebook or Twitter, rather than to the daily newspaper. Therefore, it is a great place to share your results and your thought-provoking new ideas.

However, to be part of social media is not only about communicating effectively and getting your voice heard, it is also a platform for interaction and building partnerships. Your audiences, whoever they may be, are there, for you to engage with and learn from. Storytelling is a useful and increasingly important method in which to do this, so this tool will also be a focus of the training, crafted in a way that is specific for researchers and academics.

In this workshop you will understand why social media can be meaningful, get the right tools for using and engaging audiences on social media, with specific focus on Twitter and Facebook, as well as some tips and tricks for writing blogs. We will then get the opportunity to apply what we learnt during the workshop at the following days conference "Greening Agri-food Systems, Ensuring Rural Sustainability and Promoting Healthy Socioeconomic Transformation in South-East Asia."

Please register by sending a request no later than Thursday 18th of January to: Anneli at anneli.sundin@sei-international.org and/or Bobby at rirven@gmail.com

Anneli Sundin has a transdisciplinary background in sustainability science and has worked with science communication for a few years. At SEI she is responsible for providing strategic advice and delivery of professional communication activities relevant for the outreach of specific research projects. Her special competence lies in creating spaces for stakeholder dialogue, using storytelling in science communication, social media, short videos and photography. She has a great interest in topics related to sustainable agriculture and food security.

Bobby Irven has a diverse education background, originally studying Chinese and Political Science during his undergrad, and last year completed his Master’s in International Development, conducting his research in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh. His passions center around seeking justice for some of society’s most marginalized populations, particularly around the topics of human rights, environmental conservation and recently, topics of climate change. He believes in the practical use of research and academia in affecting and changing policy, and in his current role, strives to spread the Center’s wide range of publications and events throughout the region, impacting those who make decisions at the highest levels.