#PintAU21

Wow - what a year.

As we shared a few weeks ago, this was the last year that Jirana and I will lead the Pint of Science festival as co-CEOs. The team has already wrapped up the festival, but Jirana and I wanted to indulge in a small moment to take stock and say a personal thank you to our volunteers, donors, presenters and audience who have all got behind and supported our vision.

Some quick-fire stats from 2021. There were:

• 63 public events streamed/uploaded/shared over two weeks;
• 5,500 video plays on YouTube with over 1000 hours of watch time;
• Over 210 podcast plays on Soundcloud;
• 190,000 people reached on Facebook;
• 25,000 people reached on Instagram;
• 440,000 post impressions on Twitter;
• 2500 mentions on social media of the Pint hashtags or handles; and
• Numerous radio and podcast appearances.

All by 90 volunteers and 134 presenters.

And, if you were going to go experience every part of the festival all over again (which you can do on our YouTube, soundcloud and social channels), you’d need over 38 hours to engage with all the events, videos, podcasts and takeovers. That’s a full working week of Pint content online for your next couch binge!

Over the last few weeks, we've been excited to hear directly from some of the volunteer leaders who worked on the projects this year. They shared stories of their experiences via a series of blogs on the Pint website. We encourage you to take a moment to read their reflections. They provide insight into some of the behind-the-scenes of what’s involved in getting an event online.

A few links to make it easier for you to put on your reading list:

• Mug of Science
• Pod of Science
• Trivia
• Live Tours
• Pint Takeovers
• #ThisIsMyScience & #ThisIsMyField
• Workshops

We got the chance to reflect on the festival and our journey in a Mug of Science chat with volunteer Ruvi Lecamwasam filmed back at Jirana and my first Pint of Science venue, King O’Malley’s in Canberra. It was a wonderful moment for us to look back at the last few years.

Over the years there have been so many successes that we are incredibly proud of – but perhaps most impactful on us has been getting to watch our volunteer crew continue to develop and grow. We are so very proud of how much so many of them have developed throughout their volunteer experience and challenged themselves to achieve more than they thought was possible.

Supporting this ongoing professional development has always been a lot of work for Jirana and I personally – but it is really only on reflection that we can see just how hugely rewarding it has been for us individually. Both Jirana and my professional careers have benefited significantly from this experience and we wouldn’t be in the roles we are today without the skills we’ve developed during our time with Pint of Science. 

This is the value of volunteering and what we always strove to create for our team at Pint - an environment where it is safe to experiment, learn and develop new skills. 

We both feel so lucky to have been afforded the opportunity to have connected with so many in the STEM community and to have made our little disruptive impact on the STEM-engagement sector.

We wish Pint of Science all the very best into the future.

A formal announcement of our replacements is expected later this week. We wish the incoming co-CEOs the best of success in their new roles and call for all the volunteers to afford them the same inspirational energy and support you offered us. If you are behind them, they cannot fail.

Thank you – for everything.

Tom & Jirana.