Public talk at NSM

Today I gave a talk to ~100 National Science Museum (NSM) staff and invited VIPs from museums, science centres and universities across Thailand.

The talk was about the Canadian Museum of Nature - our history, renovation, exhibits, and of course our research, focusing on mineralogy (what else?!). This is the first time I have ever had my name written in foot-high letters, along with my talk title, and put up on a curtain in an auditorium! It was a tad intimidating. Last night, I was wide awake until 3am with the gerbils in my head spinning hard, thinking about this talk, trying not to be nervous. It's the first time I have ever given a talk with a translator as well - I was unsure how that might go as I didn't want to bore my audience nor let the talk go on too long. I was given 3 hours in total, including welcoming coffee, a few remarks by Dr. Somchai, the Director of the Natural History Museum, and a Q&A period.

Rule #1. If you are going to be standing on stage for 3 hours, do NOT drink all the water that the very nice lady keeps putting in front of you, no matter how thirsty you are!!! It makes the last 1/2 hour very uncomfortable!

The talk went well, and it was easy to tell who in the audience was following me and who was understanding the English. Translation wasn't a problem, but I did hear later that it was a bit disruptive for those who could fully understand English (70% or so we estimate). That's all part of the game though, and Cholawit did an excellent job translating on the fly. He had seen my presentation and gone over it with me late last week, but still, it was an impressive job he did for the entire time! There were two ladies in the 2nd row who were very enthusiastic, nodding and laughing and grinning the entire time - it was very encouraging. I later talked to one of them and found out that she has a MSc in Geology and works downtown at the Science Museum/Planetarium. She is also interested in going to Sudbury (of all places!) to take the science communciations program! And go down in a mine. Small world!

After my talk, I had about 30 minutes worth of questions from a wide range of angles - budgets, funding, volunteers, endangered species, cloning of dino DNA (??), exhibit design and conception, audiences, conservation, you name it. It was quite fascinating actually. And it was so encouraging and stimulating to be in a room full of scientists who work in a museum setting! People that are interested in both research and public education. I was happy to answer their questions and very happy to chat with some of them after the talk. I wish I had had more time to do so, but by the time we finished, it was 12:15pm, time for lunch, and Somchai shuffled me out the door and off for an awesome lunch. We were joined by the husband and wife team of Eric and Danielle, a Finlander and a Frenchwoman. Eric is here to give a workshop on taxidermy to staff at the NHM. They came to lunch with us and we had a great time with a fantastic spread of food - tom yum khung, coconut curry soup, fried snapper, shrimp cakes, fish cakes, morning glory, greens and roast pork. Mmmmm....!!! I also threw down the gauntlet so to speak - I asked Somchai what the spiciest dish in Thailand is. He has decided to take me to a place in Khlong Luang to show me! Uh oh. I might have just gotten myself into more than I bargained for! Or possibly a few days of GI tract torture!! But I'm not going to back down now!!