tone

So on one hand at the Grand Bazaar we wanted to blend in, we wanted to seem like a legit professional retail stand, which we are, but we are at the same time we hadn't really done it for the public before. But at the same time we sent you notice that we wanted to blend in and seem professional like that, at the same time we wanted to stand out, and be recognized as a little bit different. We definitely want to do engage people in conversation kind of whether or not we sold them things. And so it was a fine line that we were riding whether or not I really realized that at the time

I think the way that the Science Haven table operated, it was very fluid in terms of the space that it occupied and how the volunteers were like sitting on the floor with the kids and it was inviting, and it wasn't like just a bunch of scientists sitting behind the table making it seem like there was an awesome them and there was certainly a lot of interaction, a lot of moving around, a lot of getting comfortable with the kids, which was really cool to see. So I don't think that the table stuck out in any way, in terms of the theme and the overall atmosphere of the festival itself.

So one of the things we've noticed, for the people who may listen to this later, I work in North Carolina and I work on a statewide dispersed model of a science festival. I'm not even sure if we can actually be called a science festival, but we'd call ourselves that and Ben lets us do that. But we play a lot around with the space of bringing science content into non-science events and spaces and trying to build meaningful partnerships. So I was really curious to see this and how it played out. And one thing we've learned from our experience sometimes our presence can be a little bit jarring in that you're at for example, Northeastern North Carolina, there's something called The Potato Festival. And I thought there was some natural tie to sweet potatoes and there's no historic... They wanted to sell French fries. So they created this potato festival. So we hadn't done a lot of homework about what this event was. We just knew it was a big event. It's like a giant street carnival there's rides, there's vendors. And we're like, "Is it cool if we bring some science content?" So we had like three tenths of scientists come out to lead hands on activities. And we noticed right away that as people were walking up to it, it was just out of place. They were looking at it like a local realtor who's talking to them about how they can buy houses in the area and getting a business car. The next place is like a juice station. They can get a Turkey leg and then it's like, "Hey, do you want to learn about the exoskeletons of bugs?" And like, "What? Why do I want to do that?" So we learned that we needed to have some buffer stations or change the style of interactions because it felt out of place and it wasn't even customized to the event itself or to the people that would be at the event. There's one thing I would say that I do want to separate from the actual what was happening at these specific stations. But going along the route that Justin and I walked, and we walked the whole thing, it seemed like an entirely appropriate style of thing to happen at this big cycling event. So all the SciCycle stuff, the branding was on point, the fact that it was a place for people to hop off their bikes and do something hands-on or interact or look around, all seemed to fit really well with the overall vibe of the event itself, which is casual and informal and family friendly. So that's what I meant about how it was woven in. It didn't feel forced. It hit the right tone. And then some of the booths, the one that stood out that Justin and I, we've talked about a few times, there was one, a mechanical engineering group, a math group up near Hank Aaron Boulevard, I think was doing an activity that was right... The theme was about wheels and how important it is this things to be round. So like the activity itself was really appropriate for the style of event that the people who were attending it were expecting to see. So that's more what I meant about how well it's integrated into the overall event, this scavenger hunt felt. And I got to eat ice cream, which was good too at a science station.

thinking about the ways to engage with that audience. And so, like that was mentioning on the call, we had live music playing in our space for the first time, because that was a little bit more of a spectacle. And especially being next to the pro-wrestling ring, we needed something loud to drown out the bells, and the announcers, and everything, and just the natural yelling that happens in that environment. We just started mixing in some of those elements. Like the live music, to touch on the actual people that are at the convention. As opposed to treating it a mobile museum space, where we take the museum, and just set it up in the convention hall.

I would definitely not use the word inauthentic, is because I think that the Science In Vivo group, the planets were so joyful and sincere in their contribution, that I think people took that at face value, as like, "You're here, you're a part of it." It's already a given that you're a part of it because of your engagement, you're marching down the street with people. I think the one thing that was a little bit dissonant was that some of the groups marching were using more explicitly playful ways of marching, and our group was a little more serious. But to the extent that we were playful, I think it really worked. But I think that was potentially a little bit of a disconnect, but I think that sometimes that can work too, right? I think as long as you're sincere and you're engaging with people, people respond to that, and that's what I observed. So I think that what could make the engagement more successful would be to use more of the approaches to being playful that were already there, and to build on that, and just develop, that side of it. But I definitely didn't feel like it was outsiders inserting themselves,

So, explicitly, what was there was St. Pete Science Festival, their website, and the date of the next festival, but there's a lot of implicit things happening. Again, support for the community is one of those big implicits because they're there. They're integrating into the theme of the event, and so that will automatically suggest effort, as does the presence of a decorated float, anyway. It can then be inferred that you spent money and time to be a part of that event, and that suggests that you care about what you're doing. I would also say that your theme did contribute to this implicit idea that science is fun: bouncy music, flashing lights, fog cannons, and things like that are fun. And, therefore, so are you. So science got to be told as fun. The St. Pete Science Festival, which is connected to that, therefore gets an implication of being fun. Yeah, so for me, those were the implicits.