Climate Connections 2.0 is an "unconference" that will build climate service culture, connectivity, and capacity across NOAA and with core partners.
Join the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for Climate Connections 2.0 Unconference, from 9:00am - 5:00 pm, on October 29 and October 30, 2024, in Washington DC. There will be an optional training day on October 28 for climate services professionals at NOAA who would like to build their skills and knowledge on Earth System Science, Collaboration Techniques, and Communicating Climate as well. Climate Connections 2.0 sessions on 29-30 October are open to NOAA staff and affiliates as well as our climate services partners. Registration will open at the end of August.
NOAA plays a critical role in providing climate services that support informed decision-making across various sectors. "Climate Connections 2.0" is a two-day unconference (with an additional training day at the beginning) designed to enhance the culture of climate services within the agency. This unconference will bring together climate service practitioners from every line office to connect, build capacity, and collaboratively chart a path forward for NOAA's climate services.
The Equitable Climate Services Action Plan is a key motivator for this meeting. It identified that NOAA needs to create an Enabling Environment (Goal #5) to improve its climate services - including to make them more equitable. A systematic challenge NOAA faces is that our climate services are distributed across the agency without the strong central coordination of a line office (accountability, budgets, etc…). To build a Climate Ready Nation, we must better coordinate our internal actions, and we must engage with our users more coherently. In short, we must formalize the profession of climate services practitioner at NOAA and build a community of such professionals. To these ends, this workshop builds on Climate Connections 1.0, held in 2019, and is intended to initialize a series of such meetings for the future.
Goals of Climate Connections 2.0 Unconference are:
Toward formalization of the Climate Services Profession at NOAA
- A measurable increase in connectivity (who), knowledge (what), and process (how) understanding among climate services practitioners at NOAA.
- Social network analysis pre- and post- workshop.
- Assessment of new subject-matter knowledge learned in sessions.
- Assessment of new techniques and approaches honed in sessions.
- Establishment of a formal baseline for the NOAA Climate Services Culture annual survey.
- First survey is administered prior to meeting with results shared at meeting.
- Increased cross-training and awareness of NOAA's climate services and tools.
- A shared definition of climate services within NOAA.
- Identification of internal needs regarding training, detail opportunities, and knowledge exchange.
Agenda:
Day 0 - Training
- Formal training on climate services communication, science, and collaboration techniques.
Day 1 - Climate Services Unconference
- Opening plenary
- Attendee-organized parallel sessions
- Evening networking
Day 2 - Climate Services Unconference
- Attendee-organized parallel sessions
- Optional evening activities
Location and Dates
- The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC
- October 28-30, 2024
- The overall event is in-person to focus on relationship building. Some limited sessions, such as the plenary, may be recorded or streamed.