We are fortunate at NCSE to have a super talented and dedicated staff, like our Communications Director Robert Luhn pictured above, who bend over backwards, and then do handsprings and cartwheels, to make the organization look good. This week we've had a strong presence at the annual meeting of the AGU, the American Geophysical Union, which has been around since 1919 as the premier earth and space science professional society in the world. Since 1968, AGU has held an annual fall meeting in San Francisco. The estimated count of attendees this year: 22,000, mostly scientists, with some educators and press.
For years, the fall AGU, usually held the second week of December, has been held in the giant Moscone Center where the likes of Apple and Google hold their big jamborees. We've had a booth in the exhibit hall the past several years that Robert Luhn heads up, while several of us, this year myself and Minda Berbeco (who has been Tweeting up a storm (@MindaBerbeco) about #AGU13 run off to give or listen to presentations, meet with colleagues, new and old. This year we're running a workshop with the longwinded name of Preparing for Global Change: Education, Collaboration and Community Engagement to Enable a Science Savvy Society Workshop.
I had the honor of giving one of the very first talks of the conference--at 8 a.m. on Monday morning when most people were still trying to find their way through the registration maze. There were maybe a dozen people in the audience but, hey, it was being webcast and then archived, although it appears that only AGU members can watch the archived talks. Many focused on climate literacy and related topics.
When the dust settles, I'm sure Minda and I will be able to highlight some of the many gems and insights from the talks we've heard, but meanwhile we're just doing our best to keep our heads up and our feet moving forward until the end of the week comes and we can recuperate.