O’Conall Street

When people ask what is interesting about my job I often say pretty much everything. Here is a good example. For the past three years Weber Shandwick in Belfast has been working with the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland on the biggest geophysical and geochemical survey ever to take place on these islands. The Tellus project results are being announced today at a major conference in Belfast.

 The project was of tremendous scientific importance but also challenging from a communications point of view given the survey methods (low flying aircraft and direct soil sampling) and the reach (everywhere in NI and some parts of the border counties in the South).  The communications efforts have already been recognised by the PRCA (IRL) and the CIPR Pride Awards where it was the top 2006 winner. Indeed the project’s outreach manager, Dr Marie Cowan, has gone on to us assume one of the top earth science communication roles in Europe as Communications Manager for the British Geological Survey.

Weber Shandwick’s project leader, Sonya Cassidy, will tell you the communications were good but the science is excellent. There is hardly an aspect of life in Northern Ireland that will not benefit from this project’s outputs. There may well turn out to be gold in the Craigantlet Hills or Platinum in Antrim and the possibility of us tapping into geothermal energy deep underground is one step closer a a result of Tellus. Farmers will also be interested in the detailed readings of numerous elements in the ground soil which way exceed anything they would have had access to on a regional basis. I could go on and on but best check out the project website yourself to find out more. As Garth Earls the GSNI’s Director said at the press briefing yesterday. We are scratching the surface of opportunity with this data. It is now time for the private sector and academia to dig deeper into it to grow our economy and make our region more sustainable.

At the outset of the project we set ourselves an objective of trying to connect young people with science through Tellus. Debates, gold panning in the Mournes and cliff walking in Larne all brought us eventually to W5 at the Odyssey where we have hosted two successful Gold Mine days allowing 16 - 18 year olds role play there way through the planning process for a Gold Mine. Each has been a sell out and the third is planned for next February. 

To Garth Earls, Mike Young and Marie Cowan at the GSNI we want to say thanks for making us part of this amazing journey to the centre of (NI’s) earth.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 5:38 am and is filed under Corporate Communications, Public Relations, Science, Weber Shandwick. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.