2019 events

Blogging for beginners

On 20 March, we hosted a workshop at the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba campus for STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) researchers to learn how to write blogs. The workshop was designed to assist researchers in understanding the benefits of blogging and create confidence in writing for a general audience in a more casual online format.

How to tell your science in a video

We hosted communication training on 2 April at the University of Southern Queensland, Springfield campus to teach participants how to create a video using their mobile device.

The following tips were provided at the training session for video development:

• Understand the audience you want to get to and who you are actually getting
• Create great content, social currency, triggers, emotion, practical value, tell stories
• Engage people in the first FIVE seconds
• Keep it short—less than 2.30 minutes
• Have quality vision and sound
• Establish your identity/brand (own channel)—with an interesting bio
• Write a compelling title
• Create a custom thumbnail
• Include subscription links and website information
• Connect with others—feature others’ channels, watch and comment on others’ videos

Leveraging social media for career progression

We hosted 2 interactive workshops to help STEM researchers understand the importance of social media and how to write for the various platforms to create a strong ongoing audience. The workshops were held on:

• 21 May at CQUniversity, Rockhampton
• 11 June at Bond University, Robina

UQ Idea Hub

On 4 June we ran a full day workshop for a group of early career and senior researchers from Queensland universities, held at The University of Queensland. The workshop aimed to deliver skill development in:

• agile research—focusing on the importance of creating a consistent research strategy
• pitching and storytelling—how to communicate the same idea to different audiences.

The day was completed with a group debrief which provided an opportunity to network, ask questions and reflect on learnings from the day.

Queensland Women in STEM Prize

In February 2019, we hosted (in collaboration with the Office for Women and World Science Festival Brisbane) two communication training sessions designed to equip participants with the skills necessary to enter the 2019 Queensland Women in STEM Prize. The sessions were held in Townsville and Brisbane.

Competition winners

Winners of the 2019 Queensland Women in STEM competition were announced during World Science Festival Brisbane in March 2018:

• Jury Award—Amanda Dawson for her work on impacts of marine pollution on seafood.
• People’s Choice Award—Anu Choudhary for her investigation into non-chemical forms of agricultural weed control.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Jury Award—Clare Villalba in recognition of her commitment to preventing diabetes-related blindness.

Industry breakfast with CQUniversity

In late October, we co-hosted an industry breakfast with CQUniversity as part of the Partner Up Queensland program.

This session focused on informing local business about opportunities for collaboration on alternative energy solutions, and included presentations from:

• Queensland Chief Scientist on science and technology opportunities for Queensland
• CSIRO’s Dr David Harris on the future of hydrogen and Gladstone’s role
• Prof Steve Moore from CQUniversity who discussed the university’s research into clean energy solutions and technologies
• Michael Koczyrkewycz from APR.Intern who spoke about connecting researchers with industry for short-term research projects.

Local CQU researchers also attended the breakfast and had opportunity to hear the presentations, network and participate in the workshop.

During the visit, the Queensland Chief Scientist also presented an online professional development session to CQUniversity students on his career learnings, the role of the Office of the Queensland Chief Scientist and ways for researchers to profile their themselves and their findings.