London – Akshat Rathi

Transition

December 8, 2013 Akshat RathiLeave a comment

At a London pub in November, I had the chance to tell a story to an audience of about 50 people. The event, called Story Collider, was organised as part of the SpotOn conference. The story is about how I moved from India to the UK and went from engineering to chemistry to ending up as a journalist. All this is interspersed with some humour about how Indian stereotypes played a role in shaping me.

Transition, 7 November 2013. (10 minutes 39 seconds)

Science Communication Conference 2010: Day 2

May 28, 2010December 30, 2013 Akshat Rathi2 Comments

DAY 2 (see Day 1 post here)

The plenary speaker events on the second day were really good. The day started with Tim Smit a Dutch-born British business man famous for the Eden project. This man knew how to grab the attention of the audience by the adept use of highly controversial thoughts. Here are some of the most interesting quotes:

If you can get 3 people to believe in something it will happen: the Tinkerbell theory. (1)
Most science centers are profoundly crap. Dominated by middle aged men who believe in interactivity but have never done it. (2)
Science centres are missing the concepts of mystery and romance in their infrastructure.
We don’t let our scientists who look like scientists in front of the public. (3)
Reform the few most charismatic students in a school and you’ll reform the school.
We are living at an exciting time, much more exciting than the time when the Renaissance began.
The more you charge people the better they think about the offer you are making.
I feel like a pork sausage that’s walked into a convention that doesn’t like pigs. (4)
Science & Art begin with the same idea of learning from observation. We need to bring that forth.

Concert Hall — During the fostering 'good' science communicators session

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Science Communication Conference 2010: Day 1

May 27, 2010December 30, 2013 Akshat Rathi2 Comments

Sci Comm 2010 — Science Communication Conference 2010

The Science Communication Conference 2010 had been a much awaited event in my schedule and it was a great privilege to attend the conference having been awarded the bursary by the organisers, the British Science Association.

The conference was held in one of the best venues I have been to in the UK: King’s Place. It suited the needs of the conference perfectly with its big concert hall for plenary speaker events and many smaller located close by were used when the conference split into many parallel events. The centrally located foyer, with its little island tables, was ideal for networking during breaks. The catering service did a decent job with the food and the supporting staff did an excellent job to keep things running smoothly.

DAY 1

I missed the first part (the introduction to public engagement, presentation of the department of business, innovation & skills and a session on jargon) of the conference due to prior commitments on that day. You can read about what happened in that period here. I reached the venue very close to the end of the lunch break and barely had time to grab a bite. I was looking forward to meeting tweeple but that had to wait till the next break.

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