Naturalist's Plenary Presentation

The president of the Western Society of Naturalists came to JEFS STA because she wanted to make sure her plenary presentation for the Western Society of Naturalists annual meeting was engaging and inspirational. Previous speakers relied on not just their work but also ribald humor to warm the crowd at the annual meeting kickoff.

The speaker had a vision of bringing the audience on a journey of why she became a scientist and asked participants help by sending her their pictures from the field and providing quotes about their own scientific "why?" One specific request of the speaker was that the final slide be some sort of mosaic of all the provided photos that would tie back to her "why."

JEFS STA went on to create a custom animated PowerPoint presentation that seamlessly moved from the speaker's inspiration to becoming a professor (CSULB) and field scientist into each participant's individual scientific "why." The final slide (see header photo) was a slow reveal of the speaker turning into a mosaic of all the participants' photographs.

After her presentation, the speaker gave JEFS STA feedback that she received a standing ovation from the crowd. The best part of this project was seeing an organizational president include her audience by asking them ahead of time to provide material for her talk.