Case Study: Notes from a Pulitzer Center Webinar on Migration and Pandemics
Talks @ Pulitzer: Sonia Shah on "The Next Great Migration"
This Pulitzer Center talk was compelling and straightforward and we offer this chronology as a format to consider emulating.
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Reminder sent one hour before the event
- After opening the webinar and thanking guests for joining, the MC/host invited attendees to use the chat function to tell where they were from. It was a global and national group, and this created a sense of the scale, and also of community.
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MC introduced speaker—shared a PPT slide while her own image/screen was off to the side. (screen sharing)
- During the introduction, she told the history of the Pulitzer Center talks—just a sentence to give context for how these come about.
- Noted something about the mission and work of the Pulitzer Center—that they have reporting fellows and even resources for primary and secondary education, including lesson plans.
- As she introduced the speaker, she had PPTs to illustrate appropriately.
- MC noted that there was a Q/A option where folks could write questions for the speaker to address after.
- Housekeeping announcement made—noted that the webinar was being recorded and would be made available and that an optional survey would follow it.
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The speaker, Sonia Shah, came on—took a minute for her to get her screen sharing to work, but it was smooth after that. As she spoke, she had slides – mostly photographs – with text to illustrate her point. (Is there a way to have simultaneous closed captioning for high-level talks? What about signing? Just a thought.)
- Her talk was very engaging and insightful. I didn’t take notes throughout, but these ideas stood out to me:
- Poverty-malaria-poverty cycle of poverty and disease
- Homomigrasio rather than homo sapiens – ape that moves, that migrates
- Microbial xenophobia
- Medical tourism might be spreading antibiotic resistance
- Walls don’t stop people – migration continues and becomes more deadly. Most who migrate are healthier than the host countries because they have to have the stamina to leave. (Is that true?)
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MC closing the talk
- The talk is connected to a blog—after discussion, more questions and answers available there.
- Announced the next talk—used a slide which had a link to their events
- MC mentions that the work of the Pulitzer Center is non-profit and depends on funding from donors—provided a donor button/link
- Link to their website provided—easy to sign up for their emails
- Thanked everyone—and it was over and out. Quick event—really solid content, presentation, and participation though not long or in-depth.
Amala Lane, Einaudi Center