In-Person Workshop
With Lesley Evans Ogden and Niki Wilson
Science writers and communicators are often asked to drive discussions by moderating or sitting on panels in a variety of professional and public venues. How they perform these roles has a big impact on how audiences contextualize important issues and these are roles of increasing importance given the current geopolitical climate. Additionally, acting in these roles can be an important source of income and professional experience. Despite this, there is little training for journalists and science communicators on how to maximize the impacts of these experiences for audiences and moderators. Consequently, panel events often fall into predictable patterns: a mic passed up and down a role of panelists, a lack of on-stage chemistry, awkward and sometimes uncomfortable inequity of air time, and a missed opportunity for everyone.
But it doesn’t have to be this way! Dynamic, inclusive, entertaining experiences can help tell meaningful, memorable stories. Effective hosting is a performance that requires artful preparation, creativity and engagement, augmenting and managing a well-chosen format and structure. In addition to teaching basic moderation and facilitation skills, this workshop will help science communications and media professionals hone their hosting skills by tackling pre-event preparation, dynamic event formats, stage-presence, on-stage and virtual interviewing, participant management and audience engagement. Participants will by guided through improvisational techniques to create and experiment with a variety of panel and other moderated formats in a safe, innovation-friendly environment. We’ll develop a vocabulary for managing on stage conversations and use role playing scenarios to try out different styles and techniques in a low-stakes collaborative and supportive environment.
Date: Sunday, June 14, 2026 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location + Cost: To be determined
Hosted by: Niki Wilson and Lesley Evans Ogden
Registration will open soon! Check back in the future.
Lesley Evans Ogden and Niki Wilson were thrilled to develop and co-lead this moderating workshop launched at the World Conference of Science Journalists in Pretoria, South Africa, in December 2025, where it earned rave reviews.
Niki Wilson is a multimedia science journalist with a past life as a biologist. She grew up dodging bears in Jasper National Park, Canada, and has studied everything from mammoths to mountain pine beetle. She now writes about health, nature and the environment for publications like BBC Earth, PBSNature, Nature, and Canadian Geographic. Niki was associate producer for the Audible top five podcast Wild Sounds of Canada, and co-host of the Apple top ten science podcast Anthropomania with Jay Ingram. She is thrilled this year to celebrate 12 orbits around the sun as a science advisor and host for the Jasper Dark Sky Festival, where she appears on stage with astronauts, science celebrities and talented researchers. Niki has taught science communications since 2010 with the Banff Science Communications School, now Global Partners in Science Communications. Niki also teaches independently, hosting workshops on journalism, science communication and nature writing to a cross-section of organizations, universities and public.
Find Niki at: LinkedIn, BlueSky
Lesley Evans Ogden crossed a career bridge from nerdy bird scientist to multimedia freelance journalist after a PhD (Simon Fraser University) and postdoctoral research (UBC) in wildlife ecology. She now writes internationally for outlets including New York Times, BBC, Knowable, Nature, National Geographic, and Natural History, also contributing to science documentaries for broadcasters like CBC’s The Nature of Things and ARTE. Lesley loves teaching and mentoring as a guest expert leading workshops on pitching, publishing and science writing across Canada and the US. When not writing, producing, teaching or speaking, she can often be found in her happy place – running, biking, swimming or hiking in nature -- or during gloomy Vancouver winters, studying improv comedy. Combining her award-winning writing with her love of teaching and the outdoors, Lesley is launching Nature Writing in the Great Bear Rainforest, an immersive small group workshop at Great Bear Lodge in British Columbia in May 2027 (registration now open).
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