2. People are willing to spend time talking about communications.
Usually at a conference on science or agriculture, communication will only be a tangential topic, and my ears really perk up when I hear someone mention it. My ears were very happy at this conference, as current and former politicians offered blunt assessments of why our communications fall short (“You don’t need to tell EVERY THING!”). Case studies and comments from experience in countries across Africa and the world were innovative and practical. It was bliss.
3. We need new communication tools.
Our participants listened carefully to analysis of technology critics and best practices for building allies who can provide trustworthy and credible messages about the safety and benefits of GMOs. They were engrossed in the benefits of visual metaphors and understanding why knowledge is low in our area. And the benefits of story-telling – a topic near to my heart – was introduced and followed by enthusiastic participation in exercises to identify stories about real people that can enhance our safety messages. I noted a few topics that came up multiple times, that we might consider the next ABBC Symposium. These include using data to understand our stakeholder audiences and test messages, creating videos that show the why, how and who of agriculture technology, and going deeper into understanding the core values we all bring to our work.
Thanks again to ISAAA AfriCenter and our Symposium supporters: Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organization, Uganda National Council for Science and Technology, Uganda Biosciences Information Center, the NEPAD Agency’s African Biosafety Network of Expertise, COMESA-ACTESA, MSU, and the Program for Biosafety Systems.
