In 2020, the temperature of the Earth’s surface was 0.98 degrees Celsius hotter than our 20th-century average. Because of climate change, we’ve consistently had hotter summers, colder winters, and more natural disasters in a shorter amount of time.
Climate change is an urgent issue that can only have real long-term solutions if people come together and commit to addressing it. This is why climate change conferences are a powerful and critical channel for reaching public and private stakeholders.
If you belong to an environmental organization with a mandate to help manage climate change, the success of your conference can make a huge difference in how people perceive and deal with the issue. You’ll need compelling conference posters and marketing materials as well as effective coordination with event suppliers and your venue.
Here’s everything you need to know about planning a climate change conference.
What Goes Into a Climate Change Conference?
When you’re planning a conference about climate change, it is important to know what to include to make it an educational and informative experience for the attendees.
Consider including the following activities:
Speeches and Presentations By Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
Invite SMEs to be speakers during your event so they can educate attendees about vital aspects of climate change.
Speeches can be about its causes, potential large-scale and small-scale solutions, the impact of climate change, and how different initiatives can mitigate or help resolve the situation.
Understanding how climate change works, its future impact, and what it means for humankind is a great way to not only raise awareness but also get more people involved.
Panel Discussion Among Researchers with Q&A
Researchers often have their studies and findings go unnoticed by the masses. Even when discoveries gain some attention, they tend to be quickly forgotten.
Having a panel discussion provides a platform for researchers and specialists to discuss their studies in depth while giving the audience opportunities to comment and ask related questions.
Additionally, the jargon used in journals and papers can be alienating but having a researcher talk about a topic in layman’s terms can be more engaging and can prompt more immediate localized action.
Workshops and Activities
Another way to engage participants and notable stakeholders is by having workshops and activities where they can interact with each other and even work together.
To make your workshops and breakout activities as engaging as possible, map out the different audience groups you’re expecting and design activities based on their level of knowledge and interests.
How To Prepare for a Climate Change Conference
What aspects do you have to plan for in an upcoming climate change conference? Here are a few key items you should take into consideration:
Invite the Right Speakers
Inviting the right people is extremely important to ensure that you have buy-in from relevant stakeholders. Whether you’re focusing on a specific aspect of climate change, are trying to mobilize action, or just want to promote general awareness about the topic, invite speakers who can engage and communicate effectively with your audience.
This may entail providing them with briefing materials, coordinating with them about what they intend to talk about, and how they want to present their ideas. As the organizer, you can have a significant impact on how your chosen speakers relate to the audience. It can spell the difference between a so-so gathering and a memorable experience.
Use Social Media To Spread the Word
Promoting any event on social media is extremely crucial as a lot of people hear about events solely from different social media handles.
It’s important to make sure that anyone curious about climate change hears about your conference.
Using PosterMyWall, you can quickly and easily design posts using customizable social media templates to use on all your social media handles.
Ensure that your posters include relevant details such as the date, time, venue, and a brief description of its theme. You can then use these on all your social media handles, and print posters in the vicinity where your conference will be held.
Engage the Youth
Sure, there are all kinds of organizations, government agencies, officials, and groups that should be a priority but engaging young people like students and scholars is an important demographic when it comes to climate change.
While all kinds of individuals may be interested in a climate change conference, students are an ideal demographic as it is a crucial part of their education. Plus, after all is said and done, the future is in their hands. Their level of awareness will be a driving force that will influence their areas of study, their careers, and how they as a generation decide to handle this all-important issue.
Create Informative Posters and Pamphlets
Distributing informative posters and pamphlets is a great way to make sure that you’re getting the word out about your conference.
You can use PosterMyWall to design unique, interesting, and eye-catching conservation posters that contain all kinds of relevant information about climate change.
These can be distributed among the attendees, keynote speakers, and other participants so they can help with your conference’s publicity.
Spreading awareness about climate change is extremely crucial to getting more people interested in the issue, and it will help propel change and improve conservation efforts.
Have a Theme
Climate change is a huge issue but several topics under it deserve attention. Depending on your focus, you can give your conference a theme to narrow the focus and ensure that it fosters conversations about concrete and realistic measures.
You can focus on one of the five aspects of climate change:
- Heat waves
- Frequent, unusual, and intense weather patterns
- Rising sea levels
- Warmer oceans
- Melting glaciers
If attendees are coming from a specific community or country, another option is to consider the effects of climate change that they’re most at risk for.
Conclusion
Collective action is only possible through education and a joint decision to make a difference. Raising awareness and inviting communities to take action through climate change conferences can give us a considerable advantage in our fight against the degradation of our planet.
If you’re hosting or organizing an upcoming conference about it, you must know how to engage your audience and important stakeholders so that they can be part of the solution. These tips will help you plan a meaningful climate change conference that can affect change at different levels and within different communities.
