Interested in a session/town hall focused on communication for 2012?

Submitted by Julie Risien(0)2 February, 2012 - 10:44

Communication session at the 2012 Conference

Hi ACES community and potential 2012 conference goers. I'm looking for feedback, collaboration and ideas to develop a communications focused conference session that people want to come to.

Please weigh in on any of the following.

1) Do we need a session focused on internal communication (i.e. the Ecosystem services community) and using tools like Ecosystem Commons?

2) Do we need a session on communicating ecosystem services to the public?

3) Do we need both, and if so should they be combined or separate?

4) What format would work best for a rich conversation that surfaces communication solutions? Town Hall, or Traditional Session?

If you have feedback, are interested in collborating or just want to monitor this discussion, subscribe to this post and join in.

Groups:

ACES, A Community on Ecosystem Services

Internet Merchant Company

Merchant Info Zone

Internet Merchant Account

420 Mac

Lake Side Alliance

Comments

greggelliott17 weeks 1 day ago

I am a communicator who could

I am a communicator who could use examples of ecosystem service communications that have succeeded and that have failed - if there are any data on that. I think there's a need for both internal and external communication, and it might be best to do them in a combined fashion.

Julie Risien17 weeks 23 hours ago

Thanks for the feedback, are

Thanks for the feedback, are their any organizations or individuals you think have succeeded and could contribute to a ES communications session at the conference?

kcopas12 weeks 3 days ago

I'd be very interested in

I'd be very interested in presenting work NatureServe has launched with EPA via LandScope America. We'll be carefully selecting map and other content being developed for their forthcoming Atlas of Ecosystem Services and "translating" it for LandScope's land trust, policy-, and decision-maker audiences. Seems to be one variant (among many) of the effort you describe.

Site Admin 211 weeks 1 day ago

Thanks Kyle, We are getting

Thanks Kyle,

We are getting to the details of planning this session. I'll contact you via email to see about collaborating and including the Natureserve work.

chris corbin12 weeks 3 days ago

I feel communicating to the

I feel communicating to the public is currently the more important of the two. As for structure, I'd like to see a series of brief case studies (success stories), and a brainstorming session of the marketing communciation framework that led to these successes. I also believe a paper or blog post summarizing the lessons learned, would help increase the reach of this session.

spendergrass11 weeks 5 days ago

I agree on the public

I agree on the public communication aspect, especially because that ties into the public's acceptance of needing to PAY for ecosystem services in order to preserve their function in the future. A huge but necessary task.

So, I am coming primarily from the perspective of working with water/wastewater utilities and green vs grey infrastructure, but there are probably some good case studies in that sector (along with a critical need for more and better public education and communication about the full cost of providing such services) that could fuel part of a session.

To elaborate, I am thinking of situations where utilities need to raise water or sewer rates to simply cover the actual costs of operating and maintaining built infrastructure, so because most people have no idea what goes into that and because we have completely underpriced these services in the U.S., there is great outcry when rates do go up. There is a HUGE need for better public communications here, especially if we are ever going to include green infrastructure and source protection costs (i.e. ecosystem services) into the full cost of providing water/sewer services to people and companies.

Specific cases that come to mind:

DC Water has been doing tons of public outreach work to improve their visibility and have their customers better understand what they do (and thus why rates must go up), and their director is a great, dynamic speaker on this issue. http://www.dcwater.com/

Santa Fe NM is another good example of an innovative public communications strategy to ease ratepayers into paying for the cost of source water protection (fuels management in forests) by gradually introducing the idea on water bills.

Make sense? I'm happy to discuss further. I don't know if other PWS and green infra. folks have been discussing this idea elsewhere but this (public communication related to pricing resources) is a recurring "need" that comes up in all our meetings/conferences.