Communicating the role of wildlife attractions

Finding the balance: promoting conservation and driving visitors

BIAZA Communications Conference 2019, Marwell Zoo

Agenda

Monday 14 October: Welcome Day

12.30pm Arrival and registration 1.00pm Lunch 2.00pm Introduction to Marwell Wildlife: Paul Simmons – Head of Marketing, Marwell Wildlife 2.20pm Sponsor presentations: Digitickets, Semantic, Attractions.IO, Agency Six, Immotion and Big Wave 2.50pm Marwell Wildlife’s conservation: Dr Phil Riordan – Head of Conservation Biology, Marwell Wildlife 3.15pm Refreshment Break 3.25pm Team building activity: Danielle Free – Animal Behaviourist, Marwell Wildlife 4.30pm Tropical House Tour: Gordon Campbell – Project Advisor, Marwell Wildlife 6.00pm Dinner – Marwell Hall

Tuesday 15 October: Conference

8:30am Arrival and registration 9.00am ‘Our role towards a sustainable future for all species’: Madelon Willemsen – Director, BIAZA An opportunity to meet BIAZA’s new Director and hear her thoughts for the future of BIAZA 9.45am ‘Engaging Audiences’: Panel discussion • ZSL: ‘Saving the Salamander: Promoting a fun new exhibit with a serious story behind it.’ • National Marine Aquarium: ‘Significant Other – Can separating attraction from charity work to better communicate both?’ • Chester Zoo: ‘Secret Life of the Zoo: Making celebrities of our weird & wonderful species.’ • Hawk Conservancy Trust: ‘What if you’re not classed as a typical zoo – the pros and cons’ As good zoos and aquariums we deliver many outputs beyond our outstanding animal care and great visitor experience; from education programmes to on-the-ground conservation projects, we’re all working to protect endangered species. How do we balance telling our audiences about our conservation efforts, while also driving visitors - when the two can sometimes feel at odds? 10.35am Refreshment break 11.00am KEYNOTE ‘Our Planet’s Connections: Joining the dots between subjects, issues & actions’: Matt Larsen-Daw – Education Manager, Our Planet / WWF-UK A chance to get a behind-the-scenes insight into the Emmy-award winning Netflix documentary. 11.30am ‘Saying 'Cheese' at the zoo: An examination of the impact of animal-human selfies’ Jessica Stride – Researcher, Flamingo Land 12.00pm ‘Turning scientific data into digital experiences for wildlife’ Dr Rafael Mares – Data Scientist & Zoologist, Internet of Elephants Taking treasure troves of wildlife data that is being gathered all around the world, and turning it into publicly consumable digital experiences, both for on-site and at-home engagement. 12.30pm ‘Introducing the Sustainable Palm Oil City Toolkit’: Jenny Tegg – Head of Marketing, Chester Zoo 1.00pm Lunch 2.00pm ‘Comms Hack’: Creative solutions to pressing challenges We’ll have spent the morning discussing some of the most pressing challenges we as zoo and aquarium communicators face when trying to balance visitor driving with promoting our wider work; now it’s time to come up with some solutions! Working in groups, you’ve got an hour to unpick a communications challenge, and come up with a creative solution to solve it that meets the objectives as set out on your task sheet, before presenting back to the room. 3:20pm Refreshment break 3.40pm ‘Conservation Optimism’: Julia Migné – Outreach Coordinator, Conservation Optimism Finishing the conference on a positive note, we’ll hear about the Conservation Optimism movement – what is it, and what part do we play? 4.00pm End of conference

Optional extra: 4.15pm ‘Wildlife venues and benefits of addressable TV using Sky AdSmart’: Paul Lovesy – Sky UK 5.00pm Close

With thanks to our sponsors: