Bird Conservation through Education: A National Gathering, February 22-26, 2009

The BEN conference "Bird Conservation Through Education: A National Gathering" took place February 22-26, 2009 with an enthusiastic gathering of bird education professionals in Jekyll Island, Georgia. The impact, however, may go on for some time. This landmark event was an overwhelming success largely due to our dedicated volunteers and generous sponsors. Our wide-ranging network of bird educators was well represented as 112 participants hailed from 30 U.S. states and four other locations in the hemisphere.

The conference received front page coverage in the Georgia Times Union which highlighted the "bird education" focus of our meeting. To read the article click here or for another story featured in The Brunswick News click here.

If you were unable to attend the conference or just want a copy of a presentation they are now available to download. To download a copy of a presentation please use the links below. For a copy of the on-site Program click here or to download a conference evaluation form click here.

Photos from the conference are also now available online by clicking here.

 General Sessions

Natural History of Jekyll Island (Download)

Lessons to Share on Bird Conservation, Wildlife Education and Building Coalitions, David Waller (no presentation available)
Working Toward a Bird Literate Society, Kenn and Kim Kaufman (Unavailable)

Youth Birding Initiatives Panel Discussion: Encouraging Youth Participation in Bird Conservation (no presentation available)

BEN Update (Download)

Creating Dynamic Relationships with Diverse Audiences, Audrey Peterman (coming soon)

Federal Agencies Panel Discussion- Partnerships for Bird Education (no presentation available)

Evaluating Your Bird Education Efforts, Rick Bonney (coming soon)

Creating Birder Friendly Sites with an Education Emphasis, Dwight Cooley and Kenn Kaufman (Cooley Download, Kaufman Download)

Concurrent Sessions
Identifying Bird Conservation Needs in Education and Outreach: PIF and State of the Birds (coming soon)

A Bird's Eye View of Climate Change (Download)

Bird Education and the Hunting Community (Download)
Cornel Citizen Science Activity- Tips for Identifying and Monitoring Bird Nests (Download)

Marketing Lessons for Your Bird Education Program (coming soon)

Flying WILD: Expanding Capacity for Bird Education (Download)

Working Together for Bird Education Across the Hemisphere (Sheylda Diaz-Mendez Download, Jim Chu Download)

Education as a Tool for Conservation: On the Ground Success Stories (Download)

Connecting Families to Nature (Download)

Developing Best Practices for Bird Education (Download)

Activity Demo: Flying WILD (no presentation available)

Avian Academics: Using Birds to Teach the Standards (Download)

Building a Bird Conservation Toolkit for Bird Educators (no presentation available)

Activity Demo: National Audubon's Conservation Education Toolkit

(no presentation available)