Speaking at conferences

Speaking at conferences
Presenting sustainable development ideas at conferences, and supporting conference development
I am often invited to give presentations at conferences, both in-person and online. Generally speaking, I prefer to do a talk and follow it up later with a workshop, as I find that that gives people a chance to relate what they heard to their own context, challenges and opportunities, and helps them go back to work with something concrete to follow up on.
I am interested in working at all scales, wherever this is going to make a worthwhile impact.
“Generally speaking, I prefer to do a talk and follow it up later with a workshop…



Here are just a few examples of events I’ve taken part in and spoken at:
Addressing the Challenges of Climate Change Communication (2019), and Climate Change Communication (2018)
I co-organised these two international conferences when I was working at Manchester Museum. Participants included UN Climate Change, the IPCC, World Meteorological Organisation, as well as academics and practitioners from many countries. The conferences resulted in two books.
ICOM Kyoto (2019)
As part of the ICOM Sustainability Working Group, I helped put together the panel session on Curating Sustainable Futures, held on the first day of the conference.
ICOM Prague (2022)
Again as part of the ICOM Sustainability Working Group, I presented the ICOM 2030 Action Plan as part of a workshop.
At the same conference, I ran a workshop for ICOM-CC with José Luiz Pedersoli on ICCROM’s Our Collections Matter programme.
Association of Research Libraries, President’s Institute on Academic Libraries and Sustainable Development
I was invited to give the keynote presentation at a one-day President’s Institute for ARL members, hosted in San Diego. Alongside the keynote, I facilitated two workshops exploring how to put the SDGs into practice. Subsequent to the Institute, I’ve been working with ARL on an online webinar series with a group of ARL members.
ICOM webinar on the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (2023)
In 2023, I collaborated with ICOM to organise an online webinar on the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration Rights, and how museums can contribute to human rights and benefit from using rights-based approaches.
Localising Sustainable Development in Latvian Museums and Libraries (2021-2)
I have collaborated closely with the Latvian Museums Association and UNESCO Latvia, in the development of two hybrid conferences to promote the localisation of the SDGs in and through museums and libraries. This involved helping shape the conference programmes, as well as giving keynote presentations and running workshops.
Presenting at the UN High Level Political Forum (2022)
As part of Latvia’s presentation of its Voluntary National Review in 2022, the official Latvian side event at the UN was entitled “The Transformative Nature of Libraries and Museums as Safe Spaces for Dialogue and Information Literacy”. I worked with the session planners to develop an online panel presentation, which has had more than 30,000 views on YouTube.
UN Climate Change Action for Climate Empowerment Dialogues
The Action for Climate Empowerment Dialogues are part of the UN Climate Change process, in support of the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement. I have spoken at a number of these, by invitation, on museums, participation and climate action. As part of these events I have sometimes helped to facilitate workshop discussions. I have also presented at COPs 24, 25 and 26.
Group for Education in Museums (UK) (2020-)
I’ve worked to support the Group for Education in Museums to understand and embed sustainable development approaches into museum education. This has involved giving keynotes at their annual conference, as well as development for GEM staff and trustees, and writing articles for the GEM journal on sustainable development topics.
British Ecological Society
I am a member of the British Ecological Society, and have presented my work several times at the annual conference, aiming to strengthen the awareness of the potential of museums and museum collections to contribute to sustainable development agendas, including nature conservation and sustainable use of nature.

Curating Climate (University of Oslo, 2019)
I gave a keynote on ‘Museums: 55,000 ways to address climate change’, as part of an in-person international conference ‘Curating Climate – Museums as ‘contact zones’ of climate research, education and activism’