The TEDxCincy conference I spoke at last week went really well. I didn’t trip and fall off stage so that was a plus. I felt a bit out of my element as most of the crowd consisted of marketing and design professionals. I’m used to speaking to zoo people, but I think the audience was pretty receptive to my message: personal and meaningful experiences with wildlife create emotional connections, the passion that inspires them to take conservation action.
One of our bird keepers, Cody, brought along a little penguin named Filet who made an appearance on stage at the end of my presentation. He was a big hit.
Several people approached me later to share their own personal connections with wildlife, which made me feel good. One of them was an electrical engineer who’s thinking about making a career change to get involved in wildlife conservation. Hopefully, I convinced him to look into our volunteer program to get started.
Videos of the conference talks will be posted on the TEDxCincy web site in the coming weeks so you can download and watch my talk, if you’re interested. Counting the number of times I said “um” might be fun.
I would love to hear your speech. I used to watch the webcam with Emi and Suci at the Cincinnati zoo,because I live here….Now I am watching the white rhino webcam at Blair Drummond Safari Park in Scotland, and I started writing stories about the rhinos. An artist in the UK is painting them…We put them on the internet for people to read. Watching the webcam helped build an emotional bond with the animal that created the interest in writing these stories for children. I have no idea where it will go,but it shows no signs of slowing down. Connecting with animals creates the emotional bond that helps people see the balance in nature and why it is so important to preserve these animals. bucko
I was in the audience and was never even worried about you falling off the stage. I was sitting toward the back and was able to observe all the heads nodding in agreement during your talk.