I mentioned this on the twitter thread as well, but I'd love to do a proper life-cycle carbon analysis on some key monitoring technologies and compare them to in-person monitoring. With all the carbon embodied in sourcing sensors, SD cards, batteries, etc how long do you have to run your sensors to make them better in carbon terms than in-person surveys?

A paper just came out on this that could provide an interesting starting point. https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pan3.10333

There was a previous Wildlabs thread on this - https://wildlabs.net/discussion/conservation-grants-field-vehicles but it didn't garner any comments unfortunately. 

I'm not sure if IdeaWild allows for car repairs? The grants are for equipment specifically. That's a small grant anyways though ($1500) so you'd probably need something bigger it sounds like.

I don't know of any grants specifically funding this, but most people I know who have gotten vehicles have applied for bigger grants that they write a new vehicle into as a budget line item (e.g., WWF, WCS, CI, MBZ, national agencies like NSF).   

What do you think? 
I think this is a great idea! Absolutely relevant. Thanks for considering. 

Would you be interested in seeing this? 
I sure would be. 

What would be most useful? 
A quick pathway to switch to conservation IT. I know at early career there is a lot of interest. For me personally I am trying to make this switch very late in career. So quick pathways are important to me. But excited about everyone's interest!

How do you think we should tackle it (i.e. format - events etc)? 
Couple events lasting not more than 1 hour each that is recorded for later viewing. Focused on roadmap to switch. 

Who would you love to hear from? 
People who are already established in Conservation IT and making decent salary. 

What questions do you want answered? 
Quickest road map to switch to conservation IT and making decent living. Max 2-3 options on road maps so that it is not too overwhelming. 

I think this would be awesome!! I worked at my university’s graduate career center (focused on PhD/Master’s students) for 2 years and it really changed my whole perspective on non-academic careers particularly. I’ve done some non-academic careers workshops with my dept here and am happy to be involved/help plan if this is something you want to push forward. I’ve got lots of resources compiled too from said workshops that folks are welcome to take a look at here. 

At the career center we would do alumni panels on different themes like “careers in ed tech” or “careers in science writing” etc etc and bring in people from that sector. I wonder if we could do a similar thing here. It could be organized by tech (careers w/ drones, careers w/ camera trapping, etc.) or by employer type (careers in government, careers in international nonprofits, careers in corporations, etc.). And then either way you do it, have the panel represented by the tother topic, i.e., for careers in government have people working with drones vs eDNA, etc. or for careers with drones have people from companies, academic centers, etc. It might also be worth bringing on hiring managers too for the panels, at least for some of the bigger entities e.g., Microsoft, Google, etc.

We would also do blogs and podcast episodes profiling people which we could do here too, potentially similar to the layout of WILDLABS' Technical Difficulties Series or From the Field series in compiling a book of examples/experiences featuring people in different areas. 

Just some initial thoughts, but bottom line, very excited for any sort of professional/career development programming in conservation tech!  

I'd agree with other folks but I also think that the things that might be really useful might be more concrete, things like 

• what sectors want R vs Python if you do programming/data science
• how to best represent all the weird random skills we end up picking up doing our work on a resume/CV
• comparison of private sector / public service / ngo / academia as workplaces
• how to identify sectors where there's going to be a lot of demand

This has been a really exciting week for me! A lot of cool stuff happening in the WILDLABS East Africa Community. Well, first of all we launched the community and I am happy to see all the interactions happening there. If you are based in East Africa- have you joined the Community? If not, then, head on over here; introduce yourself, take time to explore the resources we have and engage in the discussions- I am looking forward to your inputs on ongoing discussions e,g:

•  If you are using EarthRanger, I'd love to hear all about your interactions with the tool here.
• What are some of the Conservation Technology gaps in East Africa? Share your insights here.

Then, I also had a hand in reporting on the first workshop of our Inaugural Women in Conservation Technology Programme; this was a great reminisce of the week we had with the cohort and I'm really excited for what lies ahead and to also witness the impacts of capacity building and mentorship on emerging conservation leaders. If you haven't already, you can catch up with all the updates in this article, and in our socials (Twitter and LinkedIn), as Steph has mentioned. 

Aside from that, I came across a couple of interesting projects and work, that we will definitely highlight in the community. It was a great week and I'm looking forward to continue on with learning, interacting, exploring and highlighting more on conservation technology!

Netty.