Engagement
What happens when you mix creativity with community? You make a people person like me very happy.
Engagement work is perhaps the most impactful part of what I do. I have had the joy of running workshops in schools, organising three successful stalls at London’s biggest Science and Art festival, facilitating focus groups, creating a neuroscience themed escape room, hosting a book launch, and supporting the most iconic pride event with Carrot Drag (which was perhaps the most legendary show any research institution has ever seen).
Jump to:
Source: MRC LMS Instagram
Example -
THE GREAT EXHIBITION ROAD FESTIVAL
The Challenge
In the spring of 2023, my team and I at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (MRC LMS) were tasked with running three stalls at The Great Exhibition Road Festival. This festival is London's biggest science and art event with thousands of attendees each year.
Our goal was to engage people with the science of DNA, engage our researchers with the public, and get people talking to our DNA experts about science.
Our diverse audience included families and young adults from all over London.
Source: MRC LMS Instagram
The Work
Our Teamwork
We picked out three of the MRC LMS’ most successful workshops:
-
Epigenetic Puzzle
-
Fly Gut Run
-
Extracting DNA from a Strawberry
And decided to take them to the next level! We are talking:
-
Matching T-shirts
-
Lab coats for all of our guests, to truly become professional DNA extractors
-
Photo booth and decorations
-
'Ask a Scientist' email
-
Volunteer rewards
My Role
Aside from developing these events with my team, my specialty was in several key areas:
-
Recruiting, Training and Managing our team of 50 people
-
Social media
-
T-shirt & instruction sheet design.
-
Leading the ‘Extracting DNA from a Strawberry’ stand
Source: MRC LMS Instagram
The Results!
If I can say so myself - I think my team and I outdid ourselves with this one.
Our events were some of the most popular stands of the whole festival, with the ‘Extracting DNA from a Strawberry’ taking the top spot. Our team and our guests were so happy and my cherry earrings were a huge hit.
We won the Medical Research Council Impact Prize for our excellence, and we went on to take the ‘Extracting DNA from a Strawberry’ workshop to different schools in our area.
Needless to say I rewarded myself with a strawberry smoothie at home to celebrate the achievement. Slurrpp and relaxxx.
Top 10
Most visited stand at London's biggest
Science and Art festival.
>2,000
People visted our activities
across 2 days.
50
Volunteers, which I managed, trained and looked after.
Prize
Our comms team of three were awarded with the MRC Impact Prize.
MORE ENGAGEMENT PROJECTS
