© AXA Research Fund

Whether it be South Africa, Ireland or Singapore, 15 researchers from across the world met up in Paris to present their work at the AXA headquarters in a silent conference event. These AXA Research Fund grantees are advancing knowledge in areas linked to current societal issues such as women’s health, energy transition and marine biodiversity. To promote their research, our project at Agent Majeur had three aspects: set up the silent conference, enhance communication skills of the researchers and produce videos of the event.

First off, what is a silent conference? It is a type of event, which allows you to transform any space into a conference hall. Each speaker uses a different microphone and the public can chose who they listen to using a wireless headset. Hence, several presentations can take place close by to one another without creating a raucous. (link to silent conferences blog post).

For this scientific event, the entrance hall of the AXA headquarters was divided into 3 zones, each representing one of the research themes. Our set designer created panels and signage to separate each of the zones. On top of printing the canvases and hiring furniture, the most delicate of our tasks was providing audio equipment: microphones, headsets and infra-red detectors.

The second aspect of our project consisted of hosting a 2-day media training course to improve the communication skills of these post-docs. For this, Agent Majeur prepared a custom session combining team-building tasks, pitch training and social media workshop. This year, the theme was the UN sustainable objectives for 2030. In under three minutes, the researchers explained how their projects contribute to achieve them. What is the impact of climate change on coral? What is the potential of bio-energies in sub-Saharan Africa? How can we provide better support to victims of domestic violence?

© AXA Research Fund

Three of our trainers helped the researchers to prepare their pitches in English followed by their respective question-answer sessions. For this, each benefited from an individual coaching session via telephone, then a group training course at AXA. As for the social media workshop, our Twitter expert showed them how to get people talking about them and their work. To find out more about that just look up their #ShareYourAXAResearch hashtag on Twitter.

Finally, our team produced a series of clips presenting the training course and the researchers’ pitches. To relive the event in a “Best-Of” video, check out the summary of the three-days produced by Agent Majeur.

“Best-Of” video from the AXA MEETS SCIENCE event,
some of which was done in a silent conference-style.

If you would like to watch the presentations of the other 15 grantees, visit the YouTube channel of the AXA Research Fund.

04/02/2020