IMCC 2014 Special Events and Sessions

 

Opening Reception at the Glasgow Science Centre

  • Time: Thursday, 14 August @ 6-9pm
  • Location: Glasgow Science Centre

Directly following the Opening Plenary Session on 14 August, delegates will follow a pied bagpiper from the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, across the River Clyde bridge, to the Glasgow Science Center. At the Glasgow Science Centre, a Welcome drinks reception will be co-hosted by the City of Glasgow. Canapés will also be served. IMCC3 delegates can network and explore the exhibits throughout the Science Centre.

Schedule:
5:30pm: Delegates will gather outside the SECC following the Opening Plenary Session
5:45pm: A bagpiper will lead delegates across a footbridge to the Glasgow Science Centre
6pm: Doors open and the IMCC3 Welcome Reception begins

Supported by City of Glasgow, Glasgow Science Centre and IMCC3

Sea Stories: Tales from the Field

  • Organized by: Stephanie Green, Kirsten Grorud-Colvert, Erica Goldman
  • Time: Saturday, 16 August @ 1:00-3:00pm
  • Location: Lomond Auditorium

Every scientist has a story to tell. Whether it’s a day of adventure in the field or a shining moment of discovery, story can help make your science come alive. Come hear marine conservation scientists tell their stories and learn how elements of storytelling can help you effectively communicate your own research. This special event will feature a blend of oral storytelling, suggestions for story development, and personal accounts from the scientists who participated in a pre-IMCC storytelling workshop. Join us to hear inspiring tales of marine conservation science in action!

Documentary and filmmaking session featuring BBC Ocean and Clyde Reflections

  • Organized by: Samantha Oester
  • Time: Saturday, 16 August @ 7:30-9pm
  • Location: Lomond Auditorium

This special session will feature discussions of conservation and marine documentary making. Panelists including artists, scientists and filmmakers will give tips on sharing environmental stories through film, the documentary-making process and collaborating with filmmakers.

Panel: 
Orla Doherty (Producer): Orla is currently a producer for the BBC Ocean series and a director of the Planetary Coral Reef Foundation. She over-sees PCRF's Studio of the Sea Project and PCRF's coral reef conservation program in Bali. She received a Masters in Chemistry at Oxford University, and in 1991, she became a television director and producer for the BBC. She participated in the production of more than 50 documentaries and factual programming all over the world. Orla worked for BBC’s Youth & Entertainment and Music & Arts departments for five years, then took up freelance status, producing prime-time factual programming and documentaries for BBC and Channel 4 for five years.

Stephen Hurrel (Artist / Filmmaker): Stephen’s art practice is mainly context-based. He creates video and audio works that explore tensions between nature and society. His work has been shown in galleries, contemporary art festivals and public spaces in Europe, America and Australia and this year his work is featured as part of Generation - 25 years of Contemporary Art in Scotland. 

Ruth Brennan (Social Ecologist): Ruth Brennan works at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) where she explores how social history and cultural influences shape the issues underlying conservation conflicts in coastal communities, the kinds of relationships that people in coastal communities have with their marine environment, and the ways in which they perceive and express those relationships. Ruth uses art-science collaborations to explore the shifting nature of these relationships between people and place.

Featured Documentaries:
BBC Ocean: Ocean, at the BBC’s Natural History Unit, is a major 7-part series on the world’s oceans, covering all landscapes from the poles to the tropics and the shorelines to the deep trenches.
The first six episodes will feature the extraordinary lives of marine creatures in the same high-end cinematographic style as previous series from the Natural History Unit, like Blue Planet and Planet Earth. Each of these episodes will take a broad theme within the ocean realm and go into detail of some of its inhabitants. Many of these stories will have embedded into them the effects of a changing ocean. The IMCC session will focus on the seventh episode, which will look at stories of human engagement with the ocean. In this episode, we will meet people around the world who are finding ways to attempt to reverse the effects of human impacts on the ocean, from citizen scientists to conservationists to the mobilisation of large numbers of people to attack a problem. The overarching ambition is to create a connection between a global audience and the oceans – to get the world connected to the ocean at this very critical moment.

Clyde Reflections: Clyde Reflections is a film and audio-visual installation by Stephen Hurrel and Ruth Brennan. The Firth of Clyde is a body of water on the west coast of Scotland. It is Scotland's largest and deepest fjordic system. This film explores seven unique perceptions of this marine environment, via interviews with individuals from three different islands in the Firth of Clyde: Cumbrae, Arran and Holy Isle. They offer scientific, philosophical, ecological, conservationist, fishing, underwater and spiritual perspectives, with a focus on what each individual perceives as being ‘natural’ and ‘not natural’ in the Firth of Clyde. Clyde Reflections is an immersive experience which takes the viewer on a journey reflecting the shifting nature of relationships between people and place.

Diversity Workshop and Forum

  • Organized by: Leslie Cornick and Eleanor Sterling
  • Time: Sunday, 17 August @ 5:30-7:30pm
  • Location: Carron A Room

This workshop will follow up on a comparable event at the North American Conservation Congress in Montana. We will focus specifically on diversity questions, themes, activities, and ways forward in the SCB at large, the Marine Section, and Marine Science and Conservation broadly. The goal will be to develop a list of specific strategies and activities that can be undertaken by the Marine Section Board and its members in order to foster increased diversity in the section and across the discipline. Please contact workshop organizer Leslie Cornick (lcornick@alaskapacific.edu) with questions.

No mermaids don't exist! Panel on impact of fake documentaries on public understanding

  • Organized by: Andrew David Thaler and David Shiffman
  • Time: Sunday, 17 August @ 7:30-9pm
  • Location: Lomond Auditorium

Recently, educational TV channels have aired documentaries claiming that mermaids exist, and that megalodon sharks are still alive. This has had a major and negative impact on public understanding of marine science and conservation. Two ocean scientists on the front lines of science communication will share horror stories from the trenches, as well as communications strategies for ocean scientists and conservationists to confront these misconceptions.

Science in the Clyde: Local insight on international issues

  • Organized by: Natalie Welden
  • Time: Monday, 18 August 1-3pm
  • Location: Lomond Auditorium

The Firth of Clyde is a complex and dynamic system subject many anthropogenic pressures. Intensely studied for over a century, it has yielded internationally important insights into many marine issues. In this session, sponsored by the Firth of Clyde Forum, we provide an introduction to the fascinating oceanography, wildlife, and industrial and urban environments of the Clyde. We will be joined by a number of local researchers to explore examples of the varied research being carried out in the Clyde Sea and to discuss the benefits of this research to other systems and studies.

Closing Party at The Arches (More information coming soon)

  • Time: Monday, 18 August @ 7:30pm
  • Location: The Arches

The IMCC3 organizers decided to forgo the usual, expensive and staid end-of-conference banquets. Instead, we have arranged an enormous party for everyone. The venue is The Arches, a series of Victorian brickwork vaults underneath central station reminiscent of a gothic cathedral undercroft. (It’s  sort of place where cool (not sparkly) vampires might hang out). This historic, preserved site is one of Glasgow’s most famous and hip nightclubs.

How to get there:
The Arches is situated close to the south entrance of Central train station. From the SECC, it is approximately a 30-minute stroll down the waterfront, then turn left up Oswald Street and then right onto Argyle Street (the street number is 235).

Schedule (times are approximate):
7:30pm: Party begins
8:30-10:00pm: Karaoke competition
10:00-10:30pm: The Red Hot Chilli Pipers (band)
10:30-late: Disco

The Red Hot Chilli Pipers are one of Scotland’s most famous local bagrock bands (classic rock covers on the bagpipes), that sells out concert venues. But for one night, they are playing just for IMCC delegates.

There are many restaurants nearby and delegates may want to have dinner before the party starts. The Arches also has a café/bar in addition to a cash bar in the main event area.

Ticket prices for the party are just £10 if booked online before 1st August or £20 if bought at the conference. Guests/spouses (who are 18 years or older) are welcome. Guest tickets are £15 if booked online before 1st August , or £31 if bought at the conference.