Join our #GCARD3 Social Media Bootcamp in Johannesburg!

The road to Johannesburg

Our #GCARD3 bus (the third Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development) continues to travel the globe. And our social media team is on it!

Our first social media bootcamp was in Bangkok-Thailand (Dec 2015) at the High Level Policy Dialogues and the Regional #GCARD3 Consultation for Asia and the Pacific.
Read our wrap-up post, and the social reporters’ blogs.

Our second stop was a bootcamp in Bishkek-Kyrgyzstan (Feb/Mar 2016) at the International Conference on Eurasian Food Security and Nutrition Network and Eurasian Soil Partnership, hosting the Regional #GCARD3 Consultation for Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Read our social reporters live blogs from this conference!

Next stop: Johannesburg, for the Global #GCARD3 event!

Social Media with a Purpose

Our upcoming social media trainings are not a standalone events, they are an integral part of the #GCARD3 process. #GCARD3 (the third Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development) is a multi-year process, organized by the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR – the Global Forum on Agricultural Research) and CGIAR – the Global Agricultural Research Partnership.
It is an inclusive, participatory process, an opportunity to shape the future. It encourages conversations for change in setting a new agenda for agricultural research for development and new pathways for uptake.

The #GCARD3 Global Event, will be held in Johannesburg (South Africa) on 5-8 April 2016, co-hosted with the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa. It is a milestone in larger #GCARD3 process.

The training programme

Based on our previous trainings, we will combine theory with practice: Three days of classroom training will be followed by three days of live reporting from the #GCARD3 Global event:

April 3 (classroom training):
09:00-12:00 – The Social Media Plethora: Overview of all tools, and their use for nonprofit causes
13:00-16:00 – The Social Media Plethora (continued)
16:00-17:00 – Introduction to social media outreach strategies

April 4 (classroom training):
09:00-12:00 – The art of blogging: How to write good blogposts. What makes a good blog?
13:00-16:00 – The art of tweeting: How to use Twitter
16:00-18:00 – Introduction to social reporting and preparation of the practical exercise

April 5 (classroom training):
09:00-12:00 – Practical preparation of all social reporting tools (Part 1)
13:00-17:00 – Practical preparation of all social reporting tools (Part 2)
17:00-18:00 – Last pre-conference briefing

April 6-8: (practical exercise)
The trainees will use their acquired skills and tools to report live from from the #GCARD3 Global event.

The “theoretical” part shows the participants a full spectrum of all social media tools at our disposal. It is speckled with many examples how professionals, specifically in an agriculture or research environment, use each tool, and how organizations can develop their social media strategy. For two of the key tools, Twitter and blogging, we go into the hands-on details and exercises, readying the participants for the practical part.

During the last day of the class room training, we will split up the trainees in groups, and match novices with experts, getting all social reporters induced into all of the tools we will use at the conference. We plan to cover tools such as vlogging (video blogging and video interviews), Instagram and Flickr (as our main photo-tools), Storify (to aggregate social media content), and our main blogging tools.

During the “practical” part the trainees will use their skill set as “social reporters” from the conference.

The classroom training will be held at The Birchwood Hotel (Johannesburg). The conference itself will be held at the Birchwood Hotel and the Tambo Conference Centre (more).

This is not just a training. This…. is a bootcamp

This training will be a very intense bootcamp-type induction.

The trainees will be integrated into an online collaborative team, preparing the bootcamp and the social reporting online, several weeks BEFORE the start of the actual training.

The trainees will be required to familiarize themselves with the #GCARD3 process, contribute to the fine-tuning of the bootcamp itself, and the practical exercise, prior to the training.

During the bootcamp, our social media trainer, with several technical mentors, will monitor the trainees’ output and give interactive feedback, so they “learn as they do”.

The main training and mentoring will be done in English, though we have staff to elaborate or assist in French and Spanish too.

During the practical exercise, all trainees will be required to fully engage, both in the training, as well as in the conference discussions. This will make the bootcamp the finest, but also the most intense, training most have ever participated in.

Who can participate in our training?

Our training is open to participants of the #GCARD3 Global Event, YPARD members, the GFAR stakeholders (including CGIAR centers and Research Programs, and their partners), any researcher, student, practitioner or nonprofit organisation working in our field (agriculture, food security, sustainable development and eco-systems).

We accept participants from any nationality.

Participants have to master a working knowledge of English (as the main training will be given in English), and fluent (writing and speaking) in either English, French or Spanish.

Our training and participation in the conference is free, though participants will have to fund their own travel and accommodation.

GFAR sponsors a selection of YPARD members, as part of our ongoing youth support program. The call for applications, for YARD-sponsored spots have now been received and the application process is now closed.

Both the finalists of “YAP” (our “Young Agripreneurs Project“) and the official YPARD delegates will be integrated in the bootcamp.

How can you register for the training?

If you are interested to participate in this training, email the GFAR Social Media Coordinator, Peter Casier via p.casier(at)cgiar.org, outlining:

• Your name and age
• Your profession and affiliation (institute, organization, university…)
• How you have used social media within your professional environment, what you would like to learn, and how you would like to apply the training experience in your future professional life.
• Confirm you will cover your own travel and accommodation

We kindly remind you that our training and participation in the conference is free for all accepted participants, but applications will have to fund their own travel and accommodation, either via personal sponsorship or via their employer.

By applying for this bootcamp, all applicants fully commit to use their best efforts and skills, to work within a well motivated and active team and to engage into the virtual discussions prior to the Conference. At the Conference, the applicants are committed to be fully integrated within the social bootcamp group, as well as within the social reporting team at the conference.

Our social media trainer:

Peter Casier originally studied graphical engineering and psychology. He has 30 years of professional experience as a trainer, software developer, IT and communications manager, scientific researcher and senior project manager. For 15 years, he managed the UN’s technical intervention team, supporting humanitarian crises across the globe.

Since 2010, Peter works as an online media consultant for many nonprofit organisations. He focuses on website development, online event management, media trainings and workshops, content generation, and online media strategy/policy development. He has been the social media project manager for many large international conferences. Peter also works as the GFAR Social Media Coordinator.

This bootcamp is organized by GFAR (Global Forum on Agricultural Research) in cooperation with YPARD (the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development).

Learn from those who survived our past bootcamps

You think we’re kidding when we said this bootcamp will be intense? Well, read through this blogpost summarizing the GCARD2 social media project (Uruguay, 2012), watch the video and see how the participants used the skills they learned, to improve their own professional outreach and networking.

Here is what past participants say about our trainings, bootcamps and workshops:

“No more words left, only emotions”. I am overwhelmed by the degree of your (team’s) professionalism and kindness. This has truly been the best training experience in my life (and I have been through many!). The training has taught me that the world of social media, its tools, and its opportunities are virtually endless. It has also enabled me to uncover my ‘hidden’ talents and gain confidence. Thank you so much for the training, the editing, the mentorship and encouragement.”
—Jarkyn Samanchina, Kyrgyzstan (#GCARD3 Bishkek Bootcamp Survivor)

I thought I knew social media until I did one of Peter’s bootcamps! The workshops are extremely informative, hands-on, current, and so much fun!
—Daisy Ouya, Kenya (Communications Specialist/Science Writer, World Agroforestry Centre – ICRAF and longest-living survivor #ever of multiple bootcamps)

I have never participated in any (workshop) in my long career as well organized, as informative, as energized, as intentional, as effective, as empowering (…). (Peter) is comprehensive as well as masterful, for example, by getting the meeting participants participating months before the face-to-face meeting, as well as long afterwards.
—Susan MacMillan, Kenya (Team Leader, Communications, Awareness & Advocacy, International Livestock Research Institute – ILRI, survivor #TOCS2013 workshop)

I was very impressed with the clarity and, indeed, humanity of (the) training style. He took the original definition of “education” – to draw out – literally and had us all participating and showing off what we knew (or in my case, didn’t) through discussion and practical exercises.
—Robert Finlayson, Indonesia (Regional Communications Specialist, World Agroforestry Centre – #WCA2014 and #Forests2015 survivor)

Understanding social media would never have been easy without Peter. His art and delivery of training is just flawless!
—Showkat Rather, India (Senior Media Officer, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics – ICRISAT, #WCA2014 survivor)

Peter is a gifted social media trainer, with a highly infectious enthusiasm that leaves no room for procrastination or ‘escape routes’. We did not just plan, but executed right away: at the end of the five-day workshop, voilà, we were already on social media!
—Njeri Okono, Mexico (Former Communications Manager, Generation Challenge Programme, survivor from one workshop, but would like to survive more!)

We had the best mentor ever (..) who taught us a lot about utilizing social media tools for non-profit purposes. The dynamic and interactive sessions during the training were what really matter for us so that we could better understand the function of social media.
—Ratih Nawangwulan, Indonesia (Bangkok #GCARD3 Survivor)