Wildscreen has announced the launch of its inaugural edition of the Wildscreen Industry Summit, a new 3-day event designed to help the industry navigate the evolving landscape of natural world storytelling.
That’s a wrap on Science in Storytelling 2025! Featuring a plethora of amazingly talented speakers and scientists, we went on a journey discovering the greatest ways to keep science in the spotlight. Read on to find out our highlights!
Wildscreen has announced Maun, Botswana, as the location for its third African-based Wildscreen Festival. BBC Studios Natural History Unit are Headline Sponsor once again and Botswana Ignite is the in-country partner.
That’s a wrap on Science in Storytelling 2025! Featuring a plethora of amazingly talented speakers and scientists, we went on a journey discovering the greatest ways to keep science in the spotlight. Read on to find out our highlights!
“We have two remarkable communities working together to illuminate the wonders of our planet to inspire change and shape brighter futures.” – Liz Bonnin
Liz Bonnin gave a warm welcome to start of the day in the Lantern Hall before jumping into our first panel.
We delved into an ethical discussion of authenticity and the rising uses of AI as a tool in modern day productions, how we use it within storytelling and how it effects scientific media.
“AI doesn’t inherently threaten storytelling, AI is a tool, and as such, it doesn’t have it’s own motives, and so we need to look to ourselves about how we want to ethically manage the use of AI within this field.” – Dr Sam Reynolds
We learnt that science and storytelling is a marriage but like all marriages they need work, breaking down the science into two or three key points can act as solid foundation for a narrative to unfold, filtering the rest to match the audience you are trying to reach is key in creating widespread impact.
“The marriage between science and comms is wonderful, but we need to ensure we are collaborative to keep it alive.” – Sheena Talma
Exploring the science and storytelling behind Netflix’s “Our Oceans”, experts shared with us the impact of groundbreaking research, technology and conservation efforts that arose during and after the creation of the series.
“The biggest challenge throughout the series was noticing how much the world is changing and how much more extreme the environment is becoming.” – Jonathan Smith
Though a relationship crisis between humanity and nature, we learnt the importance of developing impact strategies and creating a step by step masterplan when utilising the creative process to inspire cultural, social and environmental change.
“We need to motivate the audience to take action, and that is what an impact strategy is trying to achieve.” – Reina-Marie Loader
Bill Markham and Martha Holmes from Plimsoll Productions taught us how to take scientifically grounded ideas to the screen, and step away from traditional natural history formats relying solely on the awe and wonder of nature as the only way to tell natural world stories.
“Our industry relies on science, and it relies on good relationships with science and it’s a two way street I believe, the industries access to time, money and kit allows us to show ‘scientists’ what they cant typically see.” – Martha Holmes
Dr Rosa Vásquez Espinoza offered a glimpse into her new book ‘The Spirit of the Rainforest’ and shared with us the ways she works to redefine what exploration looks like.
“I sit between two very powerful worlds. One that is based on modern science, on technology, on analytical thinking and an other one that is rooted in ancient wisdom, in oral stories, in intuition, in knowledge passed down through generations, and it’s not about one world being better than the other, it’s not about checking boxes, it’s not even about building bridges, in my opinion it’s about true unity, it’s seamlessly integrating these two worlds so that when we create spaces for local stories and local voices to lead, we can achieve something really unique, which is to unite human connection.” – Dr Rosa Vásquez Espinoza
PBS’s Danielle Broza and Gabrielle Ewing joined us virtually from across the pond to share their wisdom on crafting compelling science content tailored for online platforms and standing-out against the crowd as scientific storytellers in this scrolling era.
“A title and thumbnail may be disharmonious, but this will make people curious and more likely to click.” – Gabrielle Ewing
Science communicator Maynard Okereke rounded off the day with an exploration of new dynamic approaches to inspire diverse learners and breaks down barriers to science through a blend of digital entertainment and education and spark curiosity in a new generation.
“Nowadays with social media it is all about the hook and how you bring people in, storytelling is at the centre of everything I do.” – Maynard Okereke
A huge thank you goes out to all our fantastic speakers as well as our amazing volunteers and team who helped ensure the smooth running of the event. And another big thanks goes out to our sponsors Save Our Seas Foundation, Clarity Media & Entertainment, Peregrine Risk Management, Octopus Publishing Group and Wildscreen ARK, our media partner Oceanographic and exhibitors Nature Picture Library and Cambush for supporting the days events.
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