Authors: Erin Pallott, Ayobami Olanrewaju & Jill Merlini

I don’t think we need to emphasise the importance of communicating research to the public. It is essential we keep a two-way conversation about how public money is spent, how research is conducted, and how our research is beneficial, in language understandable to all.

This is already enough reason to be involved in science communication, but we wanted to share what we, as early-career researchers, stand to gain from stepping up.

Researchers and the general public gathered together Monday 17^th April at the Henry Royce Institute to mark the ticket launch of this year’s Pint of Science festival. This free event was wonderfully organised by the Manchester PoS city co-ordinators, and our very own sub-editors, Jill Merlini and Phoebe Harding-Walker, with the help of the public outreach team at the Royce Institute.

We want to share the value of being involved in outreach and public engagement as organisers, speakers, and attendees, from our very own blog team’s experience at the launch event.

Speaking: Our editor Erin gave a flash talk for the biology-based “Our Body” theme.

I volunteered to be an organiser for this year’s Pint of Science festival, but realised I would also like the chance to speak. When the launch event was announced, I jumped at the opportunity to give a flash talk. I chose my theme: mucus. My PhD project is how the intestinal mucus layer is controlled by the immune system, but for this presentation I had just 4 minutes. I knew I would have to do something very different to how I present my data at lab meetings for 30 minutes. It needed to be informative, digestible, and memorable.

I thought about what I learn the easiest. If I watch a documentary or read a non-fiction book about something far from my current knowledge, what is it I tend to remember? It’s the fun facts, not the technical details! When my friends or strangers in pubs say “A PhD in mucus? Tell us something cool then!”, I don’t start listing off how mucus proteins are synthesised or talk about biochemistry. Let’s be real, no one outside of my niche field wants to listen to that!

So instead, I thought about what got me interested in science as a young school student. It was the gross factor of diseases and the human body. I kept all this in mind while I drafted my talk, thinking about what I would take away and memorise. I gave a 1 minute overview of mucus, then talked about how we thought of it in ancient medicine, which animals produce a lot of it, and diseases that occur when mucus goes wrong (similar to my article posted last year).

Both designing and giving my talk left me with a lot to take away from the experience. I taught myself on how to rebrand scientific content into something you might bring up as a “did you know…” when with friends. It also reminded me what I loved about science before I chose it as a higher education path.

Ignoring everything else, it also gave me another chance to challenge my dreaded fear of public speaking, in a less stressful environment. It was great to hear such positive feedback about my talk sounding polished and engaging, even though I was hiding my shaking hands behind the podium.

Attending: Our student experience sub-editor Ayobami came along to the event as a member of the audience.

The Pint of Science… Just a Sip event was truly wonderful with a variety of presentations. It gave me insight into the diverse research that takes place from different schools within the University of Manchester, with approximately 50 attendees from many backgrounds, including outside of STEM. In total there were 12 compelling presentations under 6 headings exploring different aspects of research. These included technology, biology, education, and archaeology. Each pair of researchers working under the same theme was asked several questions after speaking, and each response indicated a good understanding of the theme. Most of the presenters kept to time with each presentation being short and sweet, making it engaging enough to leave you with a cliff hanger and wanting more. It included a variety of intriguing topics worded into short but catchy pitches that felt more like movie titles. It was my first-time attending Pint of Science event. However, it gave me pointers on how to give an engaging presentation that draws you in. The event was more like networking, refreshment, presentation, and discussion and then repeating the cycle again. As a result, it was easier to digest, so I didn’t feel overwhelmed with information.

Overall, I took away three lessons from the event.

• Time management is important.
• Participate in more events like this to improve presentations.
• Have a cohesive story.

I will recommend students attend similar events to learn more about diverse research, presentation styles and the secret to making research more engaging.

Organising: Our sub-editors Phoebe and Jill are the city coordinators for Manchester Pint of Science!

This year at Pint of Science we wanted to do something different… In a bid to reach a wider audience who might not otherwise attend the festival, we decided to put on a free launch event. This event was designed to try and improve accessibility for people who may not be able to afford the main festival and to give a taster of all the themes we have on offer in just 1 hour 45 minutes. This event was the first of its kind and was definitely a challenge to pull together in just under a month.

Developing public engagement skills

Organising the launch event taught us how to work with several stakeholders (Pint of Science, Henry Royce Institute etc.), gave us a taste of taking a science communication project from conception through to delivery and involved a lot of thinking on our feet as the night developed. We worked with the Royce Outreach team and with our own Pint of Science team to organise everything that was needed to make this event a success including speakers, promotion, hosting, a ticket competition, ticket sales and sponsorship. There were also aspects that we hadn’t encountered before with the main festival such as catering, media services, photography consent as well as the complexity of holding an event in an active research building. Luckily Alice La Porta from the Royce was particularly experienced and was a huge help in organising the event, thanks Alice!

When things don’t go to plan…

As with all live events there are bound to be a few hiccups. Luckily for us, there were no disasters, but it definitely tested our ability to improvise. I’m already not the best with names, but being asked to introduce the Royce Institute chief scientist and having his name (Professor Phil Withers) whispered in my ear moments before going on stage was a bit nerve-wracking! Luckily it seems I got it right and didn’t stumble over my words too much in my panic. We also had a bit of a battle with the sun which inconveniently made it almost impossible to see our projector screen. From then on, the event continued without a hitch, apart from the occasional bewildered Royce academic stumbling out of the lift and into the middle of our event.

Pint of Science – get involved!

Having been involved with Pint of Science for the last 4 years I can truly say it’s one of the most exciting and rewarding public engagement initiatives I’ve been involved with. Seeing the huge range of events take shape over the course of 8 months really makes you appreciate all the weird and wonderful things people work on and how much of a powerhouse Manchester is for research. Another huge benefit of Pint of Science is all the amazing people you get to meet, volunteers, speakers, venue owners and potential sponsors. This year with Pint of Science will be my last as I enter the final months of my PhD, but I could not recommend it more for anyone interested in public engagement, event organisation or even just someone with an interest in broadening their awareness of Manchester research.

If you’re interested in buying tickets for this year’s festival (22^nd-24^th May), check out our choice of 28 events here: https://pintofscience.co.uk/events/manchester