What we are working on in March

• writing an issues paper on water-related sustainable development goals for the International Water Management Institute
• summarising the research projects of the Landscapes and Policy hub, and writing articles for The Conversation
• running Science media space online social media courses for scientists on behalf of Inspiring Australia
• launching Sciencengage, a national database of science engagement activities, for Inspiring Australia
• writing about grains research, for the northern region of the Grains R&D Corporation
• promoting the Cultural Atlas of Australia (to be launched in 2014) and managing the Facebook page
• writing copy about the 2014 World Water Congress & Exhibition, for the International Water Association
• running the Climate Champion program
• running a communication workshop in Canberra for farmers participating in the MCV Climate Champion program
• providing communication support to the national Managing Climate Variability program
• researching the interface between science communication theory and practice for Inspiring Australia

• I love that you 'practice what you preach' with your newsletters. Not only are the newsletters informative, concise and clear, they also are great examples of how to put in practice the principles and ideas you write about. I look forward to many more useful newsletters which help to improve my own communication.

  Nicole Thornton

  Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology, Sydney, 2013

• My team experienced an early Christmas wish when Econnect rescued a highly technical document and turned it into something readable by a general audience (thank-you Mary and Sarah). While we greatly appreciated your wordsmithing skills, we equally appreciated the calm, reasonable and reliable approach to the job. So thank-you!

  Joan Meecham

  Queensland Government - Healthy HeadWaters CSG Water Feasibility Study, 2012

• I like this monthly e-newsletter. I trust it. It communicates. That’s because the authors do the hard work for the reader. When it arrives, the reader knows it will need only 3-4 minutes to read. And for that small investment there’s nearly always a dividend. The authors make it attractive and easy to navigate. The sentences are short. This makes the ideas less complicated. This means it communicates. And when the message is always positive, it quickly builds the reader’s trust. You can’t say that about most e-newsletters.

  Greg Clough

  Communication Specialist, Center for International Forestry Research, Indonesia

• You’ll be pleased to know that I trash most newsletters, but always try to have a look through yours. As you say, the art of capturing an idea in a visual way is to simplify without being simplistic.

  Richard Stirzaker

  Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Land and Water

• The workshops together with booklets were fantastic - managing the media I thought was harder than "climate change" - now it’s been made easier. Good fun - nice group interaction left feeling good /worthwhile allocation of time.

  Jennie Hawkins

  Farmer and participant in the Climate Champion program