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Guest speakers
Your celebration provides an opportunity to build networks by inviting a community member to talk as a key note speaker.
Each school has their own networks into the local community and beyond. Your celebration will provide an opportunity to build on these networks and relationships by inviting a member of your community in to talk as a ‘key note’ speaker at your celebration. Often many people make the mistake of assuming that a key note speaker has to be a celebrity – but in fact, the best key note speakers are often those people who have the most interesting stories to share.
We encourage you to ask around your school community and unearth all the amazing stories that exist, but may have never been given the opportunity to be shared in the school. We suggest that you focus on finding someone that has a story that relates to trying to make sustainable living a reality. A key note speaker is not there to lecture you and ‘teach your students’ but more so to share their story in a way that is engaging and interesting.
Guest speakers could include people like:
- a local member of the community that has made their home or business sustainable
- a student from school that has focused on sustainability issues in a major projects (e.g. their Senior Geography or Major Design Project in year 12)
- students that have undertaken volunteer work or excursions to places with sustainability issues
- a parent or friend of the school that works with sustainability issues (e.g. a soil scientist, farmer, or educator)
- a member of a local community or resident group that is engaged in a particular area of sustainable living (e.g. biodiversity, bicycle transport, social work).
- recent graduates or Alumni from your school that are now studying sustainability issues at university or TAFE.
There are also organisations around Australia that aim to provide links to schools to support learning in sustainable living. These organisations may also provide the opportunity to request key note speakers for your celebration activities.
- Al Gore Climate Change Presenters. There are now 162 presenters nation wide (as well as the original 84), personally trained by the Nobel Prize Winner Al Gore, who are actively engaged and committed to spreading the word on climate change. A presenter may be able to come to your school (with enough advance notice) though this group receive many requests and do not have the capacity to accommodate every request.
- Beyond Zero Emissions. If you are in Melbourne, the Beyond Zero Emissions campaign offers free speakers
- Contact your local council environmental educator in NSW. If you are in NSW and are not sure who they are, you could have a look at the Local Government and Shires Association’s Towards Sustainable Communities website which lists education projects in some local council areas, including officer contact details.
- Contact your local council environmental educator elsewhere. The Australian Local Government Association provides contact details of all local governments in Australia. You can use these contact details to request a member of Council to come and talk at your celebration – often Councils tend to have a Waste Educator first and then an Environmental Educator, but you will also find Planning Staff and other technical professions within Council that are relevant.
