NBN Conference 2017

So, that’s it for another year! Thank you to everyone who joined us on 16th and 17th November at National Museum Wales in Cardiff, we hope all 180 of you enjoyed the event as much as we did.

You can read a selection of Tweets, which help to sum up the hive of Twitter activity from the two days and watch all of the presentations on the Review and video page. Links to all of the presentations and a selection of photos can be found below.

We are already looking ahead to 2018, so please help us shape the next NBN Conference by completing the Conference survey. Thank you!

Presentations Thursday 16th November

Morning

Keynote address – Professor Simon Leather, Harper Adams University – Why I joined the Twitterati
Jo Judge – NBN Chief Executive – Through partnership, a lot can be achieved in 12 months!
Ellen Wilson – Chair of the Scottish Biodiversity Information Forum – The SBIF Review
Helen Wilkinson, Manager, Knowledge and Information Management and Barnaby Letheren, Enterprise Data Management;Specialist Adviser, Natural Resources Wales – A bold step-building on the past to meet new approaches in Wales
Adam Rowe – Manager of South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre Limited (SEWBReC) and representing LERC Wales – LERC Wales-Growing an Evidence Base Fit for Wales

Workshops were held on Thursday afternoon. Summary reports from the workshops will be available shortly.

Presentations Friday 17th November

Morning

Keynote address – Dr Mark Eaton, Principal Conservation Scientist, RSPB Centre for Conservation Science –The State of Nature: past, present and future
Matt Postles – Senior Programmes Manager, Bristol Natural History Consortium – Let’s talk about data
Steve Whitbread – Association of Local Records Centres Director – Recorder 6 and all that
Barry Stewart – Bryophyte Recorder for Glamorgan & Plant Recorder for West Glamorgan – Collection, Collaboration, Collation and Circulation of bryophyte records in Glamorgan
Dan Lear – Head of Data, Information & Technology, Marine Biological Association – The Wet Bit Around the Edge-Are Marine Data Different
Keiron Derek Brown – Recording Officer, Earthworm Society of Britain – Data sharing – the earthworm perspective
Linda Moore – Development Manager, Gloucestershire Centre for Environmental Records – What do consultants want from GCER
Dr Rachel Roberts – Associate Ecologist, The Environment Partnership (TEP) – NBN Atlas -A Consultancy Perspective
Anna Moulin – University of Exeter – How a student-led society can inspire a community’s perspective of biodiversity
Steph Skipp – ID Trainer for the Future, Natural History Museum – Identification Trainers for the Future – A Trainee’s perspective
Steph West – UK Biodiversity Training Manager, Natural History Museum and John Tweddle – Head of Centre, Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity, Natural History Museum – Bridging the skills gap in UK species identification

Afternoon

Sir John Burnett Memorial lecture – Professor Yvonne Buckley, Chair of Zoology, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin – Data-what is it good for? Insights from network ecology
Maria Longley – Community Manager, Greenspace Information for Greater London CIC – How to Find Treasure
Tim Hirsch – Deputy Director, Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Secretariat – NBN as a global player enabling biodiversity research through GBIF
Amy Schwartz – PhD Researcher, Project Splatter, Cardiff University – Using Citizen Scientists to Monitor Wildlife Roadkill
James Cranston – NERC iCASE PhD Student, University of Exeter – Monitoring Natural Colonists through Biological Recording
Dr Graham Smith – Lead Scientist and Head of Wildlife Epidemiology and Modelling, Animal and Plant Health Agency, Defra – Looking forward – mammal data and its potential at a national and international scale
Sue Townsend – FSC Biodiversity Learning Manager, Field Studies Council – FSC BioLinks – 5 more years of caring and sharing

You can also download the printed NBN Conference 2017 brochure

Photographs from the Conference

The full set of photographs from the Conference and Awards ceremony can be downloaded from Mark Hawkins Flickr gallery on pages 1, 2 and 3.

Here are a selection of images from the two days

Thursday presenters

Thursday workshops

Friday presenters

General images

Honorary Membership and John Burnett Memorial Lecture

As part of the Conference we were delighted to bestow Honorary Membership upon Dr Mark Hill and Professor Helen Roy.

Read Helen Roy’s citation

Helen Roy receiving Honorary Membership from Michael Hassell

Read Mark Hill’s citation

Mark Hill receiving Honorary Membership from Michael Hassell

The presenter of the Sir John Burnett Memorial Lecture receives a special medal in recognition of their talk. This year, the recipient was Professor Yvonne Buckley.