How Do You Create the Right Atmosphere for Connection? Lessons from the ACCESS Assembly 2024 Evaluation Report

One of the key aims of ACCESS is to bring diverse individuals and organisations together to support connections and spark new conversations in environmental social science.

Our Annual Assembly plays a key role in this relationship building. Every June, we bring together some 80-plus environmental social scientists from across academia, the public sector and the third sector for a two-day event at the University of Exeter’s Streatham Campus.

And then we watch the magic happen…

Connections are formed, relationships are strengthened, ideas are generated, and opportunities emerge.

Conversations at ACCESS Assembly 2024

Not “utilitarian networking”

Networking can feel excruciating, particularly for early-career researchers and professionals trying to make career-defining connections, or for the more introverted among us who don’t easily navigate big groups of unfamiliar faces.

We’ve all been to conferences and events where everyone sticks to their cliques and there’s little opportunity for connection beyond polite small talk around the buffet-table.

The ACCESS Assembly is different, and our evaluation of data collected from participants at the event helped us to understand why.

About the report

We surveyed participants before and after the event, giving us a robust evidence base to identify what worked well, and what worked less well.

The ACCESS Annual Assembly 2024: Event Evaluation Report, written by Dr Sarah Golding, Dr Jo Hamilton and Prof. Patrick Devine-Wright, is based on this data.

We’ll share some of the highlights here.

Temujen Gunawardena discussing her visual minutes with Prof. Susan E Owens OBE, FAcSS, FBA

“Lovely atmosphere in the room”: What went well

The evidence provided in the Evaluation Report shows that the right atmosphere can help dissipate many of the fears and barriers associated with networking.

Attendees remarked on the positive atmosphere of the Assembly, and the diverse opportunities for learning and connection, both of which put them at ease and helped them feel comfortable engaging with new people.

Things that participants particularly liked were the:

• varied session types (short keynotes, panel discussions, break outs, posters, informal activities)
• mix of topics and diversity of speakers
• great vegan food
• long breaks during which people could chat, network or take time out
• opportunities for movement and time outdoors
• availability of both social and quiet spaces

Attendees also remarked on the “lovely atmosphere in the room” and on how welcoming the event was:

“I liked the blend of indoor keynote discussions and some (relatively unstructured) interactions through the Flex Fund showcase and the walks. That helped to meet with people in a warm and holistic way (instead of utilitarian networking).”

“I felt this was a welcoming and inclusive environment where stories and experiences were happily shared. It was good to be amongst a diverse audience with different views i.e. not all from academia.”

We will be replicating these successful elements at this year’s event.

Cloud gazing at ACCESS Assembly 2024

What needs improvement

Of course, the Assembly wasn’t perfect, and the Evaluation Report has drawn our attention to areas we need to improve for this year’s event, in line with our Guiding Principles.

One of those is the diversity of delegates and speakers across some characteristics. While last year’s Assembly had good representation across gender, age, discipline and sector, there was under-representation across ethnicity, class, geography and career stage, for example.

We are putting measures in place to encourage and support more people from different backgrounds to attend and speak at this year’s Assembly, working with one of the ACCESS Leadership College Fellows, Dr. Jaya Gajparia.

We also need to improve the online experience for those attending the event remotely. Some online participants reported struggling to hear some of the sessions and others found it difficult to meet and make connections with attendees on and offline.

We’ll be making sure that online participants have a better audio-visual experience this year and we are creating more opportunities for virtual interactions with other attendees

These improvements will improve Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Knowledge Co-Production at this year’s Assembly – two of our Guiding Principles.

If you’d like to look at the data in more detail and understand how we conducted a rigorous evaluation of the event feedback, click to read the ​ACCESS Annual Assembly 2024: Event Evaluation Report in full.

We hope this report will help other organisers weave some ‘Assembly magic’ into their own events, and to collect robust evidence about what worked and what could be improved.