2022 Schedule – Central Time

We will explore the process that fundamentally offers diverse, underserved communities a way to "Tell Their Stories Their Way". This process starts with building partnerships, listening, offering platforms and valuing the results. The presenters all work telling these stories of the land from educational to archived digital audio content to mobile storytelling. The session will encourage audience participation in development of these strategic skills.

In an ever-changing and increasingly polarized political landscape, land trusts are the sleeping giants of climate policy. Because of their nationwide footprint and non-adversarial approach, they are uniquely positioned to communicate and advocate for climate change solutions with policymakers at all levels of government. Land trusts bring credibility and research-based solutions. And more importantly, land trusts can demonstrate the local consequences of climate change and make them tangible for policymakers who may be climate change skeptics. But what cost-conscious climate communication and advocacy strategies are available for land trusts to employ? Which are most effective, both with diverse audiences and key policymakers? And what are the legal compliance requirements for such communications with legislators – especially during an election year? This session will answer these questions and more by way of example of The Nature Conservancy’s recent “Surround Sound” campaign to support the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Participants will walk away with practical tips and suggestions to advocate for climate change solutions at all levels of government and the ability to spot legal compliance risks.

Interpretive signs are a missing steppingstone in the efforts to involve the Hispanic/Latinx community in conservation efforts and involve the community in our missions. This case study workshop will include the original plan, the budget, deviations from the original plan, but most importantly why bilingual interpretive signs are important. Including, how to identify if a language barrier exists on your public lands. This bilingual sign project included four different roles from start to finish. These roles come into play at different stages of the project, and it is critical that each person has a clear role and timeline. I will be transparent about our lessons learned and provide solutions for the steps that we would have performed differently.

During this session, we will cover the barriers and facilitators to including people with disability in your programs by defining disability inclusion, reviewing the guidelines for inclusion in physical activity and nutrition programs, and discussing how to build an inclusive community program that utilizes local schools, cities and parks.

This workshop will explore the unique ways that conservation can be a leverage point for inclusion in all communities. Participants will expand and reframe ideas about diversity, explore the foundational key concepts and values of allyship, and learn how to engage a human-centered, equity-focused lens in conservation. We will explore the individual and organizational behaviors and actions that inadvertently recreate or reinforce inequity and exclusion, and learn ways to identify and turn those into behaviors that promote and support inclusion. Participants will hear how Keep It Colorado leadership is infusing an equity approach in the conservation community in Colorado, and explore ways to activate these same strategies in their own conservation groups, organizations, and communities.

In its current strategic plan, the Land Trust Alliance committed to designing and launching a coalition-based “Relevance Campaign.” The Alliance conducted market research studies that identified an audience of 33 million adult Americans who, like land trust current supporters, care about conservation and are committed to taking action. These “conservation concerned” individuals are young, diverse and have not yet engaged with the land trust community. In partnership with 14 land trusts, the Alliance developed and tested messaging to engage “conservation concerned” audiences, and, in April of this year, launched a pilot phase of the Gaining Ground campaign. In this session, participants will gain insights into what messages and tactics were effective as well as tips on how to participate in the ongoing campaign to broaden their base of support by incorporating the campaign messaging and other materials, including social graphics and digital advertising tactics, templates and videos, into their own communications and outreach.

One of our goals as communicators is to connect more people, in more places, to the work of land trusts. In Oregon, we set out to do just that through the Oregon I Am campaign, a multi-pronged initiative that featured an illustrated map, a brand new card game, a beer collaboration, and more. Join us for this in-depth session to learn how the Coalition of Oregon Land Trust built an inclusive, collaborative, and unconventional communications campaign that engaged younger and more diverse audiences.

The world and climate we work in are changing rapidly. It's important that your land trust story keeps up with the changing times and reality we are facing. This is especially true if you are interested in widening and diversifying your audience and base of participation and support. Effectively rebranding and updating your land trust story requires a firm grasp of the editorial process. In this workshop session we will investigate powerful storytelling techniques you can leverage to help you craft effective appeals, win grant funding, and communicate your mission, values, and programming successes to your base and other diverse audiences.

In November 2021, Bold Bison hopped in a car and traversed the Lone Star State, from Dallas to Houston to Austin to San Antonio to El Paso. Charged with the task of helping seven land trusts better understand how they can tell their organizations’ stories through video, we spent 10 days filming dawn to dusk with these land trusts, capturing just a snippet of their programs. But in this brief moment, we heard incredible stories about the work of land trusts: how a land trust uses its access to real estate to support food justice in communities of color; how a community garden helped a family get back to normal after a years-long battle with cancer; how a preserve became a frontline for the humanitarian border crisis. The stories speak to organizations that are so much more complex and intentional than a buy-protect-sell model for land trusts – and those are perspectives that must capture in our storytelling to connect with new audiences. In this thought-provoking workshop, participants will hear from their Texan counterparts to gain an understanding of how this video production process increased their storytelling capacity; boosted their communications confidence; and bolstered relationships with their partners and landowners. Participants will brainstorm together how they can incorporate these lessons and the key insights of Gaining Ground at their land trust. Participants will leave the session with the energy to invest in communications at their own organization and the excitement to expand their land trust’s storytelling capacity through video.

This session will give an overview of the C-Change Conversations Primer that has been widely and successfully presented to moderate and conservative audiences across the country and universally receives high marks for its non-partisan scientific approach. It has been credited with changing "hearts and minds" across the country, including most recently in Little Rock, AK, and Athens, GA. It has also been favorably reviewed by Republican staff on the Hill as well as acclaimed scientists and provides a 360-degree view of the issue. Reaching groups like land trust supporters to deliver compelling data from trusted sources is critical to expanding our country's understanding of the risks of a changing climate and to shifting the perception of climate change from a political issue to a human one that will affect everyone