Presentation Success

Like Julie, I also presented at WiPOD's annual obesity prevention con.ference today. I partnered with Melissa Horn of the American Heart Association and Sara Sahli of the American Cancer Society. Our goal was to get researchers collaborating more on policy efforts and our strategy was to go from zero to 60mph in 2 hours and see what happened

Researchers are traditionally a TOUGH AUDIENCE for story. They've been trained toward "professionalism" and against "anecdote" for their whole career. My section (in the middle) was skill-based... intentional story development, rehearsal, and then turning a story into educational advocacy.

Highlights:

• I got to try a nerdy science metaphor! Core story = stem cell. The power of stems cells is that they can be differentiated into neural, skin, organ cells. The power of a core story is that it can be differentiated into a letter to the editor, public testimony, legislative visit. Both need to be carefully cultivated and are a hot commodity. The audience liked it!
• I spent some time in "meta" discussion to learn more about the barriers to story among researchers. About half reported they'd intentionally developed their personal story before, half had never. About half found it difficult, half found it easy.
• Some reactions to why it was difficult: "It's about my father, so it feels very personal", "It doesn't feel important, it feels small." "I think - so what - it might be true for me but it might not be for you"
• Some reactions to why it was easy: "I'm a 5 year cancer survivor, so I do this work for a reason", "It was nice to be a human", "I needed a second notecard", "This is like therapy"
• I intentionally edited for researchers. I was cautious to put anecdote as supplementary to research, not instead of. I played up the brain research. I modeled using the video I took of Dr. Aaron Carrel telling a story in his legislative testimony (after some coaching).
• We asked them to call their legislator TODAY, LIVE, IN THE ROOM, to setup a meeting. This was a total experiment. Two were willing (which I was disappointed by, but hey its a baseline). Dr. Carrel called Risser's office and we had it on speakerphone into the mic for others to hear. That was powerful and I wish I had it on video.

Concrete Outcomes:

• All 45 audience members left with a written story. And lots of prodding to intentionally develop it or use it.
• 2 legislative meetings were scheduled.
• Got 1 request for Prezi follow-up and how to improve presentations.
• Got 1 local Active Schools coalition (ARRA2) wanting to partner on storytelling.