The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

Getting help and enjoying the experience

Dr Dane Comerford, Public Engagement Manager

Think about

• What you need to do

• What it is desirable to do

• What you must not do

• How you can be efficient

• Make use of free-to-use resources

• Spend money when required

Logistics

• A team of 12-15 people – develop the exhibit together

• Arrange accommodation ASAP (Wimbledon and Summer in London)

• Break the workload into chunks: exhibit stand and handouts; interactive components; people (training, planning, rota)

• Explore funding opportunities

• Notify and ask for help from your local communications team (PR, PE)

• Notify your VC, PVCs, Dean/Head of School/Faculty

• Practice

Budget and resource forecast

• Find local and external funding and support

• Explore in-kind and collaborative partners

• Use local resources (WP,PR, PE, Development, Admissions)

• Plan for expenses

• Strike the balance between quality and value

/£k Stand

Leaflets

Freight Exhibit Training

T-shirts

Accomm.

People Total

A 21.3 1 1 23.3 0.7 0.6 3.3 4.6 £27.9k

B 10.6 2 1 13.6 0.7 0.6 3 4.3 £17.9k

C 14.5 2.5 1 18 0.7 0.6 3 4.3 £22.3k

Audience pointers

• Who will see your exhibit? (in person, online, in traditional media, via internal communications)

• Free to attend, open to the public with long opening hours

• Competitive selection (~25% success) of cutting-edge research

• What are your key messages?

Public Students Teachers Media Soirée Total

2011 10,265 1,853 224 45 1,425 13,812

2012 8,227 1,452 193 30 1218 11,120

2013 8,745 2,358 260 25 1,142 12,530

2014 10,447 2,540 320 15 1,048 14,370

Audience segmentation

• General public

• Schools: pupils, students, teachers

• Fellows of the Royal Society (FRS)

• Media (written, audio and visual)

Message development

Aim Why are you doing this? Vision

Objective What do you aiming to achieve? What

Output What are you doing? How

Outcomes What will be different? Impact

•Generic Learning Outcomes (GLOs) – for the team and for visitors:1. knowledge and understanding2. skills3. attitudes and values4. enjoyment, inspiration and creativity5. action, behaviour, progression

Communications

• Spoken

• Written

• Visual

• Kinaesthetic

• Inter-personal

• ‘Hands-on’

• ‘Hands-off’

Stand curation and lay-out

traffic

1m

Exhibit reuse

“Every time you reuse an exhibit item, the initial cost decays”

• Departmental open days

• Local research or cultural festivals

• Consider national opportunities (Cheltenham, Cambridge, Big Bang)

• Educational outreach (primary and secondary school visits)

• Community outreach (town fairs, county shows)

Outcomes (and Outputs) of the Exhibition

• A broader group and personal research picture

• Confidence, enthusiasm, ideas and enjoyment

• Development of communication skills while exhibiting to a varied target audience

• A set of high-quality materials

• Great experience

• Networking possibilities

Any questions on…

audience pointers?logistics?

message development?

communications techniques?copywriting and editing?

grant writing? exhibit layout?

Evaluation

• The great sandwich exhibition and debate

a) Do you know about sandwiches? Extensive / something / nothing / unsure

b) Where do you buy or eat sandwiches? Please write: ______________________

c) What is your opinion on sandwiches? Please write: ______________________

d) What was most interesting to you? Please state: ______________________

e) Any comments? _____________________