Strategic

how is this merchandise going to then have a life of its own once it leaves you and part of that is having that merchandise, having the life as well as the person who's selling, it gives you some gives the purchaser either a story, or either the tools to be able to have the merchandise, have a life of its own outside of when it leaves the booth. Either by telling I bought this from a scientist who works on this or this actually represents this galaxy, or this is my sign. And, so I think that will be a way for this to actually be engagement because you want it to spark something into, in that person who actually bought it. You don't want them to say, Oh, I bought these earrings, but I'm never gonna wear them, but when they go out into the world and they put them on and like a special occasion, and then when people ask, what it says, and then they are able to like be science and become like a mini science educator

I actually bought earrings. And one of the reasons why that I really honed in on buying those things was because of the talking with the scientists, and talking about her research and how that, and then part of the one thing that was the big selling point was these are real images and you're going to be wearing the cosmos. So, I think it's what is your message? As far as not just selling, but if you're doing some outreach part, and I would have like that little card that you had to show the different galaxies, if that actually came in, came with my earrings a little small, version of that, so that I could then if you want your merchandise, the people to take your merchandise, and then really talk about it with their friends, then have that and so that they can kind of remember what it is that I saw had the butterfly galaxy. And when people asked me about my earrings, I can say, "Hey, this is the butterfly galaxy." And then maybe we were talking about another thing was being able to have some dialogue with you. And if you had a Instagram page, and had people have it out, and this is where I wore my earrings, we talked about it, and be able to tag you and tell you about it. So I don't know, I guess it's your ultimate goal of what you want with this merchandise to do when it goes out into the world.

I do think that there could be some positives in learning what people are interested in. And I don't know how to say this, but giving the people what they want. So by learning what's selling well and having it stay within the science branding, which I already, like I've already expressed, I feel like that's a challenge in itself to determine what is the science brand, what you want to focus on is infinite, I think. But anyway, if you have that opportunity you could actually investigate what gets people excited.

I think of audiences that we would love to have in museums and when you go to Chuck E Cheese, if any of you have spent time at Chuck E Cheese, it's a wildly diverse audience that's throwing money around like crazy, like a kiddy casino, and they're providing a service and a venue for something that people find very valuable and very diverse audiences find very valuable. I saw that same kind of audience and that same kind of, "Oh my god, these people are having a great time and they're putting resources into this." Paying the admission is nothing compared to what people put into these costumes. Even if you buy an off the shelf Spider-Man costume you're putting a lot of cash into this, so there's an investment already being made and it's just a very compatible audience. I think you just make all the hey you can with this because it's a premade match and that was really surprising to me, and delightful and really exciting.

there is something that happens before the parade. It's something that I either didn't really know or forgot, but that whole process is really important, and I think it speaks to an opportunity that is bigger than just DragonCon, but an opportunity to really integrate science into many different events like this. There's a big lantern parade, there's something called Atlanta Streets Alive and there are all these parade opportunities, the Pride parades. And perhaps one thing that Science ATL could do, is to generate this science in parade, science on parade club, that would do the things that you described, have these workshops and meetups between makers and artists and scientists, who could then also showcase some of the resources and some of the big players in the Atlanta science scene, in the context of putting science out there and integrating it into the cultural scene in Atlanta. I'm really loving this idea and I'm thinking more bigger than just DragonCon. Well, that would really help the organization to be potentially more of a year round activity for people who love that stuff, that they could have several events and they can practice what works, what doesn't work, and think, "Okay, three months from now we're going to do it a little different."

an event is so much bigger than the actual day of the event, the actual event itself. It's so much bigger in the hype leading up to it. The documentation that comes after that. The conversations you have later. The quotes you receive while you're standing in the crowd and listening, the kids that talk about it, who are involved in the parade or participating by being a spectator. All of that is meaningful. It's not just about the two hours that you're actually walking through a parade. It's so much more important than that and so much bigger, and a lot to consider.

It's a new and interesting venue. The more venues that we start taking seriously, the more venues we get to use. The, as I mentioned before, audience access is superb. Again, you are hitting at thousands of people that probably wouldn't have sought you out any other way. That's really big. You're doing it in a happy environment. There's lots of research to show that when people are happy, they respond to messages differently. Absolutely, the thing itself is a great venue for sci-com for talking about science issues, and I think that it should absolutely be pursued further.

On the practical end, I will say that the sheer exposure is phenomenal. You are hitting thousands of people in a really short period of time that do not necessarily give a damn about science, but that's actually important. You have gone to an audience that is huge and is looking at you and may not just stumble upon you any other way, so I think that the chance to do that is not to be ... Or that cannot be overstated.

I think there's a profound opportunity, for us to be learners in this, and for the field to learn from this. And I think that's where the power in this whole thing is. Is that our role in our jobs, is to be providers, and connectors, and all those kinds of things. But this whole exercise then, provides us an opportunity to be learners ourselves. And I think that's a really important piece of this, is what can we learn from this that can help our practice be better. And help us as practitioners, to understand where people are actually coming from, and where we're coming from. And how that fits, and doesn't fit into these different places. I think there's something profound there.