Engaging Your Audience Remotely

The Interpreter's Toolkit for Engaging Your Audience Remotely

We are all in this together and NAI is excited to be bringing you resources that may help in this challenging time. As we all learn to engage with our audiences from a distance, we think the resources below will help.

Included below are the recordings from our recent free webinars and some additional resources (including deeper dives from the Best Practices for Going Digital presenters) that you may find of value.

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Best Practices for Virtual Learning
Panel Discussion
60 minutes
Date: April 6, 2020
Webinar Recording

Do you find yourself wondering how to best engage with your visitor while your facility is closed or with limited staff? If so, join us for this free webinar and learn from a series of panelists on how they’ve been using Skype, Facebook Live and Twitter both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hear their thoughts, see some of their ideas (have you seen the penguins wandering around the Shedd Aquarium yet?) and get your questions answered during this discussion with Q&A.

Panelists will come from across the profession of interpretation including the Shedd Aquarium, National Park Service, California State Parks and Big Horn Radio Network.

Regular price: 0.00

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Closed for Business. Open for Impact.
Immersive At Home Visitors Inside Your Interpretive Site Within 48 Hours With Nothing More Than A Camera and Laptop

Timelooper
60 minutes
Date: April 3, 2020
Webinar Recording

With your doors closed for the foreseeable future, how can you maintain (or even expand) relationships with your community? As part of our effort to bring more free, timely programs to our members, NAI presents a webinar hosted by one of our corporate partners, TimeLooper, where we will explore the power of virtual reality and use cases in the current environment and practical ways to get your site online within 48 hours.

Learn how to share your experiences, educational plans, living history, and natural beauty with key stakeholders who are stuck at home, including:

Families with kids dealing with cabin fever
Educators forced into distance-based learning
Topic enthusiasts and institution members searching for engagement
In this Zoom-based webinar, TimeLooper will discuss (and answer questions on) the following topics:

Best practices on how (and why) to build VR-based immersion experiences
Types of experiences you can easily develop
Easy off the shelf tools to consider
- Hardware (how to capture footage)
- Distribution platforms (how to share the content)
Creative tips on how to make content more meaningful

Regular price: 0.00

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Virtual Field Trips: Your Site through Skype
Amanda Wilson
60 minutes
Date: March 12, 2020
Webinar Recording

Dinosaur National Monument has used the innovative distance education program through Skype in the Classroom since 2015 to connect thousands of students from around the world to dinosaur fossils. As a remote park on the Utah-Colorado border with limited resources, we utilized existing partnerships, free software, cell networks and low-cost equipment to create and conduct Virtual Field Trips. In this presentation, staff from the monument will demonstrate a live portion of the program and discuss our experiences.

Amanda Wilson has been a National Park Service Interpreter since 2008 and has worked on Distance Education for the last five years. She is currently the main contact for Education Programs at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah/Colorado.

Regular price: 35.00
Discounted member price: 10.00

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Facebook Live For Interpretive Programs - Analysis and Tips
Andrew Rossi
60 minutes
Date: February 11, 2020
Webinar Recording

Facebook Live is an extremely accessible means of outreach for any interpretive site - so why aren’t we using it? Why is it used so poorly? Through the analysis of a Facebook Live video series Fossil Friday, learn the pros and cons of using the medium and tips you can employ for outreach and education.

Andrew Rossi, CHI is News Director at the Bighorn Radio Network in Cody, WY and formerly lead interpreter at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. He has done work as a “personality” with Disney/Pixar, Google, the BBC, PBS, and The Washington Post. He is a content creator on his Youtube channel T.rexcellent!

Regular price: 35.00
Discounted member price: 10.00

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Utilizing Technology & Building Partnerships
Presenter: Erin Gates

Distance learning allows organizations to provide programs online and increase access to interpretive sites. Partnerships are essential to success in maximizing the reach of interpretive distance-learning programs.

Regular price: 45.00
Discounted member price: 20.00

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Additional Resources

Below are some additional resources that we think might be useful.

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Basic Social Media Survival Skills - Wild West Region
Michele Whiteaker
30 minutes
Date: March 18, 2020
Webinar Recording

Featuring Strategy-based tips & ideas for when you find yourself stranded on the grid.

Free for NAI members. Nonmembers will be charged a $15 donation towards the Wild West Region's scholarship fund.

Regular price: 15.00
Discounted member price: 0.00

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Digitizing K12 School Group Interpretation -Wild West Region
Erin Gates
30 minutes
Date: February 19, 2020
Webinar Recording

Showcasing innovative new tools to bring your site into the classroom to enhance learning and connection.

Free for NAI members. Nonmembers will be charged a $15 donation towards the Wild West Region's scholarship fund.

Regular price: 15.00
Discounted member price: 0.00

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Spark Positive Action Through Social Media
Yvette Méndez
60 minutes
Date: September 11, 2018
Webinar Recording

Social media allow us to instantaneously share information with a wide audience. When it comes to environmental conservation issues, many of those messages can contribute to an audience’s ecophobia. Learn how the Chicago Zoological Society’s “Carlita the Candid Croc” uses social media to spark hope and positive environmental action.

Yvette Méndez is an Interpretive Programs Coordinator/Social Media at the Chicago Zoological Society/Brookfield Zoo. She holds a CIG and CIGT and has been working as a front-line interpreter since 2009. Yvette has been exploring interpretation through social media since 2014.

Regular price: 35.00
Discounted member price: 10.00

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Using social media to connect with teens
Becca Franzen and Emma Adams
60 minutes
Date: August 21, 2018
Webinar Recording

Also available in the Teens and Technology Series package.

Teenagers often have low turnout at our interpretive sites. This webinar will offer insights into how to promote your events to teenagers through social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Additionally, we will share how to use these platforms and other applications during programming to keep teens wanting more!

Becca Franzen is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and has received grants to purchase and utilize iPads in her courses.

Emma Adams is a Undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, studying Environmental Education and Interpretation. This fall she will start her senior year and is looking forward to starting her career.

Regular price: 35.00
Discounted member price: 10.00

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Messages In Motion: Video Basics For Interpreters
Elise Wahl, MS
60 minutes
Date: April 4, 2017
Webinar Recording

Short online videos have revolutionized the way people obtain information. In this webinar, learn film techniques to make effective videos that can help connect visitors to your site. We will go through the video making process together from pre-production through post-production. Continue your learning after the webinar with resource guides and prompted online discussions.

Elise Wahl, MS, lives in northwest Oregon where she runs Timberdoodle Studio. Elise is the Deputy Director for NAI's Interpretive Media Section and has worked in the interpretive field as a front-line interpreter, manager, and designer. In the past ten years she has created short videos with topics ranging from Caribou Hunting in the Arctic to The Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame.

Regular price: 35.00
Discounted member price: 10.00

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Interp-stagram
Chris Smith
60 Minutes
Date: May 24, 2016
Webinar Recording

Visual content teleports your audience and connects them to the intricacies of your resource. We’ll cover how to use Instagram effectively and discuss what makes Instagram a powerful interpretive network, expanding your audience and cultivating the next generation.

Chris Smith is the Education Manager at the Duke Lemur Center whose goal is to raise awareness about the importance of science and conservation through lemurs. He manages and trains interpretive guides and tours at the Center as well as manages their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and SnapChat accounts. He has been an interpreter for nearly 10 years and continues to use interpretation to grow the Lemur Center’s audience and influence.

Regular price: 35.00
Discounted member price: 10.00

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Interpretation: HashtagLikeShare

Sarena Gill and Kevin Wright
60 minutes
Date: March 26, 2015
Webinar Recording

How do we make our in person interpretation “viral”—engaging enough to be shared? This session focuses on applying viral media trends to interpretation, and what skills are needed to be successful.

Sarena Randall Gill, CIT & Community Engagement Manager
With over seven years of front-line interpretation experience, Sarena continually develops her interpretive skills and shares her knowledge of interpretation and interpretive skills with others in the field. She is passionate about interpretive education.

Kevin Wright, CIT
For the past 13 years Kevin has worked in the Guest Experience division at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Regardless of the training, he always tries to make each one interpretive. Over the years he has honed his skills and worked to share his knowledge. Zen moments for Kevin are spent brewing or hiking in Big Sur.

Regular price: 35.00
Discounted member price: 10.00

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