Thank you!

Wasn’t that fun? That was fun! It’s hard to believe we left Florida a week ago. To be honest, it feels like a month ago. Just us?

Nevertheless, we are already planning for next year’s conference and we want to hear from you. For all those that attended, keep an eye out for our post conference survey later today. Send us your thoughts on how this conference went and how it can be improved. We want to hear from you!

We would also like to thank our conference sponsors, Allen Insurance & Financial for sponsoring the Annual Sail Training Awards dinner on Thursday night, and R & W Rope for our spiffy conference bags!

Spiffy conference bags

 

A special thank you to Ships of Glass for sponsoring the sail training awards and for being an exhibitor.

Thank you to our exhibitors for engaging with our attendees and bringing fun things to play with between sessions.

And thank you to our TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® Port Partners, Sail Portsmouth and Tall Ships® Boothbay Harbor, for the s’mores!

Sunset s’mores set up on the beach

 

Finally, thank you to our wonderful attendees- We love hanging out with you!

You can view photos from the conference on our Flickr page and check out @tallshipsamerica on Instagram for additional content.

 

Focus Session: Finding Your Voice

Focus Session

Finding Your Voice: Social Media Tips and Tricks for Tall Ships

Speaker
Patrick Smith, Program Coordinator, Pride of Baltimore Inc.

Presentation
_Finding Your Voice_Patrick Smith

Learn how to elevate your program’s social media presence, grow your following, and reach new audiences. The ultimate goal  is to help you tailor your social media strategy to best fit your program while delivering a high quality experience to your followers. We will take a dive into the unspoken rules of social media practices, exploring things like post frequency and content development. The session will also outline how best to cater content to your followers, and highlight the dos and don’t of social media. Participants will gain insight on how to maximize output with a small staff and allocate resources efficiently. Finally, the presentation will provide insights on how to foster creativity in the workplace and how to channel it into helping you “find your voice” across various social media platforms, including YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

 

Patrick is currently the program coordinator with Pride of Baltimore, Inc., the owner and operator of the tall ship Pride of Baltimore II. Patrick joined Pride of Baltimore as a deckhand in March 2014 for the War of 1812 Bicentennial season and again in 2016 for the Great Lakes tour. He joined the office staff in the fall of 2016, acting as a liaison to the ship and largely responsible for coordinating Pride’s social media content. In 2018, Patrick left Pride to work for Chesapeake Conservancy, but returned to Pride as program coordinator in February 2019. He is the proud producer of the “Traditional Tuesday” video series. Patrick is also the social media coordinator and a member of the board of directors of the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race. Patrick is from Baltimore, Maryland, and has a B.A in History from Saint Michaels College. He spends his free time on the water and contends he is a hero in his mother’s eyes.

Focus Session: Creating Ocean Literate Sail Trainers

Focus Session

Creating Ocean Literate Sail Trainers to embrace the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development

Speaker: Laura Lyth, Owner/ Director of Océanie Ltd.

Presentation: Creating Ocean Literate Sailors

Over recent years, there has been an increased focus on the state of the Ocean due to human behaviour and to create Ocean Literate citizens. During this time, Laura Lyth (Entrepreneur, postgraduate Marine Geographer and Sail Trainer), has been promoting Ocean Literate Sail Training at European and International level, thus harvesting valuable information. These discoveries particularly regard the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

This session aims to feedback the findings of her two year pilgrimage; sharing her work thus far, supported by best practice examples from European Sail Training. Following this, there are to be opportunities for delegates to actively share their own experiences. The seminar findings intend to begin a collective action plan, focusing on how the Sail Training community can actively contribute to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and the SDGs to embrace Ocean Literacy.

Laura began UK Sail Training 2004, working up the ranks to professional crew, participating in several STI Tall Ship Races. From 2012, her focus continues to be Ocean Literacy in Sail Training, collaborating on several projects with international operators. Since 2017, she has been an active member of EMSEA, presenting at the 2017 and 2019 conferences. In 2017, she participated in the “IOC-UNESCO International Ocean Literacy” conference. In 2018, she attended UNESCO’s high level scientific conference “From COP21 towards the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030)”. In 2020, she begins a PhD at a prestigious UK Russell Group University, researching Sail Training as an Alternative Education Space.

Outside Sail Training, Laura was a UK Civil Servant for 12 years, serving for the Ministry of Defence (Royal Navy), HM Prison Service, HM Coastguard and Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Laura is now the Owner/ Director of Océanie Ltd.

Admin Forum: Key Ingredients for a Successful Grant Program

Administrators Forum (Tuesday, February 18)

Key Ingredients for a Successful Grant Program

Speakers
Kate Neubauer, Neubauer Consulting Group LLC, Founder

Presentation: Key Ingredients for a Successful Grant Program

As a nonprofit sail training organization, grants can provide the necessary funding to enhance your programs and impact. In this session, you will learn the winning recipe for grant writing success! We’ll review how to navigate the funding cycle, research and identify funding sources and design a master grant application. We will also discuss how to communicate your nonprofit’s results, identify the metrics that matter, and how you to tell impactful stories that resonate with grantmakers.

With over 20 years of professional experience in nonprofit management and philanthropy, Kate Neubauer has served in leadership roles for a wide range of environmental, sailing education and mission-based organizations. She is a key problem solver with entrepreneurial passion and loves working with her clients to design innovative strategies that increase organizational capacity and leverage philanthropy for impact. Kate has an extensive portfolio of projects, ranging from grassroots nonprofit organizations to multimillion-dollar capital campaign and currently serves as Board President of Rozalia Project.

 

Before You Go…

Don’t forget sunglasses!

We can’t wait to see you next week! As you pack your flip flops and bathing suit, here are a few reminders for all of our attendees.

Did you sign up for the conference shuttle? Today is the last day!

There’s an app! We have an app! Download the conference app! You can view the conference schedule (with speaker bios and session descriptions), build an agenda of the workshops and presentations you want to attend, provide feedback to presenters, receive reminders about events and so much more… Search for EVENTEE in Google Play or the App Store. When you open the app, you’ll see our conference listed as one of the events on the main app page (this only happens once) click on it and Boom!

What to wear? Dress code is “smart casual” – no suits or ties are required for speakers or attendees. Thursday night is our awards night and the theme is Polynesian Prom. Bring your best Hawaiian shirt and grass skirts are accepted!

If it wasn’t on social media, did it even happen? Use the hashtag #tsconference2020 and let everyone know how much fun you are having 🙂

As a reminder, our office will be closed starting Monday, February 17th and will reopen Monday, February 24th. See you in Florida!

 

Focus Session: Hot Topics in Marine Science

Focus Session

Hot Topics in Marine Science

Speakers
Dr. Ryan P. Moyer, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute
Libby Carnahan, Pinellas County Extension Urban Sustainability Team
Kathleen Moore, James Madison University’s School of Integrated Sciences
Rachael Z Miller, Founder, Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean

Since we work in, on and around the water and we teach about the ocean, lakes and rivers it is important to stay on top of the issues and science affecting our collective venue. This session is dedicated to highlighting some of work currently being done in marine science and conservation shared by experts in their fields. This year, we are excited to feature two local scientists from the Tamp/St. Pete area and a team made up of our own members who are using big data and analytics alongside shipboard science to form a potentially high impact partnership. The three presentations will cover: coastal wetland/mangrove research; climate science as it relates to sea level rise and how that affects the coast and how a partnership blending data science and microplastic sampling can weave together multiple disciplines and assemble data that can lead to solutions.

Admin Forum: Selecting and On-boarding Board Members

Administrators Forum (Tuesday, February 18)

Selecting and On-boarding Board Members

Speakers
Kris Von Wald, Executive Director, Tall Ships America
Jonathan Boulware, Executive Director, South Street Seaport Museum
Peg Brandon, President, Sea Education Association
Captain Stefan Edick, Executive Director, National Historic Landmark Schooner Adventure
Kate Neubauer, Neubauer Consulting Group LLC, Founder
Rachael Miller, Founder, Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean

Is your board serving your organization at an optimal level? In this session we will delve into topics such as criteria for selecting high-performance board members that best suit your needs and onboarding strategies for harnessing and unleashing their talents and enthusiasm. This panel discussion will offer you the chance to learn from the experiences of executive directors, as well as provide a forum for those burning questions you can’t voice in your board meetings.