Ideas to get you going
If you are keen to chip in at the BIG Event this year, but feeling short of ideas of exactly what to contribute, take a look at some of the previous year’s programmes:
BIG Event 2016 at W5 in Belfast
BIG Event 2017 at Centre for Life in Newcastle
BIG Event 2018 at Winchester Science Centre and Planetarium
BIG Event 2019 at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh
There is a list of suggestions from previous BIG Event delegates plus a few from attendees of the Little Event. These ideas have been collected through our online surveys, or they are picked up from delegates in conversation during the conferences. They are in no particular order, and you may even find a brilliant idea you had last year and then forgot about.
Ponder over the list and then Add your session proposal on this site
The BIG list of session starters for 10:
- Nuts-and-bolts sessions – here’s exactly what we tried, here’s what went right and wrong
- Technique workshops (especially for newbies)
- Technique workshops (especially for non-newbies)
- Performance skills workshops: voice, crowd control, poise, use of silence, being funny
- Experiential theatre & Sci Comm
- Music & Sci Comm
- Mental Health and resilience
- Freelance – how to become one/how to get work/how to charge
- Co-creation and how to do it
- Topics about diversity and inclusion
- Evaluation methods
- Pleasing your sponsors whilst still engaging
- Talking about global warming without preaching
- Immersive theatre or theatre collaboration
- Criteria for improving Sci Comm offerings
- Session specifically on assisted needs groups
- BSL workshop /How to work with BSL interpreter/Makaton
- Maths Busking masterclass
- Practical sessions for floor staff
- A director/producer from outside the STEM community to reflect on our shows
- Peer criticism: giving and receiving notes about presentations
- Programming for adults
- Shows from the host venue
- Business surgery/business-related stuff for freelancers
- Bioscience stuff
- Run down on sci com research in UK
- What can museums/zoos/aquariums/science centres learn from each other
- A structured session for different organisations and freelancers to showcase their work
- Session on what actually happens when people are confronted by exhibits
- Workshop on exhibit/prop development
- Social media
- Maths, perhaps a series of rich tasks
- Session about the theory of science communication as a subject
- Understanding audiences: easy ways to adapt a show for different audiences
- Tips on training others in Sci Comm/presentation work
- Volunteer recruitment, management
- Sessions run as collaborations between more than one centre
- Workshop about building a workshop/show which incorporates a story/narrative
- Possibly more improv but with applications
- Making a science presence through media
- Fundraising
- Event management
- More opportunities to see other people’s work, a few more sessions on simple, practical tips
- “Getting started” with outreach/science communication – contacts and support, subject-specific help/websites
- Something specific about the host venue and its service
- Something about the challenges of balancing speaking as a sector with competing for business
- Maybe getting a steering group together to make some decisions on things like consistent indicators of impact, developing a system of accreditation of presenters across the board. Putting wheels in motion