TRAVEL-REPORTS
CENN presentation on Climate Change
I made a presentation on the 1st July at a CENN (Caucasus Environment NGO Network) in the New Art Cafe in Tbilisi. It was an informal event to raise discussion about climate change. The intention was to find out what the people of Tbilisi think about it and what part they might play in the solution.
Cycling is Great and some other stuff about Climate Change from Andrew Welch on Vimeo.
Through my presentation, I wanted to introduce my cycle adventure so far, climate change stories and anecdotes from the journey and present some clear facts about accelerated climate change. I also wanted to talk about why cycling is such a logical and practical mode of transport for a city. Tbilisi would benefit from more bicycles and in my opinion it surprisingly well suited. It is quite a small city and most of the main areas are easy to navigate to. It is better to be on a bike for 20 mins than sitting in traffic for 2 hours. 4x4s, owned as a ‘status-symbol’ are pointless in the city. At least people in Georgia have an excuse because they are very useful outside of the city.
I put a considerable amount of effort into crafting the presentation. I got inspiration from TED lectures, Paul Deegan and Ben Saunder’s public speaking.
My approach was to:
- Keep text to a minimum
- Use plenty of photos
- Use exciting music and a short impactful photo slideshow
- Be clear and succint
- Be earnest and energetic
- Use emphasis where necessary
- Weave in interesting anecdotes and (short) stories where possible
It appeared to go down well and I’ve been invited to make presentations at schools in the winter when I get back to Tbilisi. It was an excellent opportunity for me to develop a slideshow and presentation for public speaking which I can use whenever I get the opportunity. One unexpected challenge was being patient after every slide as a chap translated it into Georgian for the non-English speakers. It was a huge rush to talk and I loved it.
I think it was a reasonable success for the 1st attempt although there’s a fair amount I could improve. Many people seemed inspired by bikes and seemed already knowledgeable about climate change.
There is going to be a follow up story a special eco-edition of the popular ‘Hot Chocolate’ culture magazine which is circulated in Tbilisi. I filmed it so I will be putting it up on Youtube in due course.
In addition there were some Swiss motorbikers, riding from Beijing to Istanbul. They were also promoting awareness of climate change, aware that motorbikes are not zero emissions they were carbon-offsetting their trip and using the lowest emission motorbikes possible. They had a strong conscience to to something about reducing their impact.