EOL at IMCC - reaching out to the marine conservation community
Audrey Aronowsky
Hello from Fairfax, VA and the campus of George Mason University. EOL has an exhibit and demonstration booth at the International Marine Conservation Congress, staffed by new EOL-er Jeff Holmes from Education/Learning/Outreach, EOL’s WhyReef specialist Beth Sanzenbacher, and me. We are here to spread the word about EOL; to give demonstrations of the site, Flickr uploading, LifeDesks, WhyReef, and EOL curating, and to talk about the EOL fellows program and proposing EOL synthesis meetings.
The response from the Marine Conservation community has been good so far. Visitors have been enthusiastic about the Undergraduate Initiative to author species pages, becoming EOL content providers, and proposing synthesis meetings.
There have also been some great presentations on marine species (blue whales! spiny lobsters! oysters!), the design of marine protected areas, and coral reef conservation. The meeting is a great combination of presentations, workshops, discussion groups, and posters, so there is always something going on. We hope that EOL’s presence at this meeting will stimulate the marine conservation community to become more involved with EOL. I am sure that we will see lots more content and curators in the future!
Tags: conferences, exhibit booth, marine biology, marine conservation, outreach, synthesis