
The following data was captured through a simple questionnaire about the Summer School issued to all delegates.
Everything was great! I'm looking forward to attending more ABSW events!
I learnt more useful information about science journalism and made more meaningful connections today than I did studying a 10-month journalism course!
Value of the Summer School
The overall value of the Summer School was rated 5 stars by 77% of respondents and 4 stars by the remaining 23%.
Career stage of delegates
Most delegates were in the very early stages of their career – with most having 2 years or less experience in the field.
Session ratings
All sessions received a rating of 4 stars or higher.
The ‘Art of Pitching’ was rated most highly at five stars, with ‘Interview Skills’, ‘Turning your topic into a story’ and ‘Journalism from scientific papers’ all rating at almost 5 stars.
This reveals a desire for highly practical sessions on the key skills required in science and technology journalism.
When asked to give context to their ratings, comments were generally highly positive:
All sessions were concise whilst still getting to the heart of the matter and I came away with valuable insight from each one.
Overall, I found the sessions informative and well-delivered. Some topics were more relevant to my current studies and interests, which influenced my ratings. The variety of speakers and interactive elements made a positive impact
Some made some constructive comments on specific sessions:
The 'misinformation' session felt a bit like information overload and not as cohesive as I would have liked it to be. However, the speakers were undoubtedly knowledgeable and highly professional.
I felt the Digital Future one was a little lacking in actual practices of what we can do to enhance our careers digitally. The style and format was great, just a casual conversation, but actual direction of "use this platform this way" or "use this channel instead of this" could have been useful.
Overall satisfaction with the Summer School
The booking process was very easy, and communication prior to the event was effective, clear, and timely. The online experience could have been enhanced with the addition of a virtual coffee break, or some way to network with other online attendees in between sessions.
Excellent! Everything was smooth and well organised!
Excellent venue and catering. Very well organised.
I think the diversity scholarship was incredibly helpful.
When asked about the best and worst aspects of the day, the majority had nothing negative to say apart from the difficulty of choosing between parallel sessions. A few delegates suggested a two-day event, although with the caveat that this may make the event less accessible due to the very high costs of accommodation in London. The issue of lack of diversity of the panel in the career paths session was raised, along with a lack of diversity in terms of the outlets speakers were from, very few specialist publications, such as Physics World, for example.
Each and every workshop I attended was relevant and valuable. The choice of speakers was great too. The only thing I regretted was that I had to miss some of the workshops as they were running in parallel.
Best: I loved the workshop elements and would love to see more opportunities to collaborate and learn from others. Worst: It was a very long day, especially with travelling. I wish it could have been over two days with accommodation but am also aware that would increase the price significantly.
The best thing was direct networking opportunities with editors and other writers. Another great thing was the content of the sessions as they answered a lot of questions I’ve had for a while. Don’t have any negatives!
Online delegate experience
Online participants were asked why they attended online to assess whether the ABSW could do more to allow in-person participation. (NB: In total, 10 individuals registered to attend the summer school online.) The key reasons mentioned were personal choice due to travel being required, and also travel late into the evening, disabilities making travel complex, and having caring responsibilities.

Ideas for the future
- If you extended the summer school to two days I think it would be really cool if you were put into groups of 4-5 with someone who was a career journalist and you had a day or half a day to go off and write an article or pitch. Maybe you could use a similar idea as the interview workshop where you are paired with an academic and you have a day to learn about them and their work and write something. Then at the end you all come together and share them. I think it could be a great way to get to know others better but also have a much deeper insight into the process.
- I was one of the small group of communications officers attending. I think some attendees (especially students) would benefit from talks from other professionals they might interact with in their career, such as press officers or editors, rather than just other journalists.
- I am a press officer. I would like to present or be on a panel for the next ABSW event to talk about how these journalists starting their careers can get in touch with us, and what they can expect when working with a press officer. I don't think it is clear enough that press officers are gateways and facilitators, not barriers, nor are we trying to control your story. I would love for each and every one of them to one day drop an email in my inbox for help their story.
- More diversity please! There are so many different kinds of journalists out there with all sorts of backgrounds and non-traditional/typical experiences.
- Introduce 10 minute speed networking sessions rather than 5 minutes. Provide a session on how to build your personal brand/ confidence as a science writer.
- It would be great to include more hands-on writing exercises with feedback, as well as sessions on emerging digital storytelling tools (e.g. data visualisation or multimedia content). A panel with working journalists discussing their day-to-day challenges could also add valuable real-world insight. A bit more time for informal networking would be appreciated too!
- Could you add capturing good images for science journalism to the next summer school? Apart from writing and speaking, adding good and quyality images makes stories to come alive, kinda adds colour to it.
- Might be useful if there was a discussion about favourite tools for increasing productivity?
- I'd like a practical session on prompt engineering / AI use cases in journalism. Please keep the hybrid offering!
- I would have appreciated some sort of structured networking event to meet fellow delegates. I chatted during breaks, but would have been good to have a more efficient way to connect with people in my field.
- Maybe a session on how to source and write the best short news articles that are likely to get your foot in the door at bigger organisations?
- Maybe an overview of how journalists managed to get popular science books published?
- I would love a session on strategies for people with neurodiversity or disabilities. This actually was suggested by an online attendee in one of the sessions, and something I have suggested before. For example, how people with dyslexia are able to manage their time effectively when having to read a lot of papers etc. I think a quick crash course in media law would also be very helpful.

Points for reflection and development
- Diversity of panellists both in terms of gender, background, ethnicity, and media outlet
- Networking opportunity for online delegates and assisted networking of some form throughout the day
- Maintain longer workshop sessions on the key elements of science journalism. Keep panel discussion sessions to 45 or 60mins (NB: delegates were specifically asked about 90min workshop style sessions as this length was new to the ABSW summer school where previously all sessions were 60mins)
- Providing further assistance to ensure even more individuals can attend in person but maintain an option for those that still chose to attend online, with the option for those online to network with each other (NB: as the event was run as a regular zoom meeting this would be possible)
All ideas for future Summer Schools will be taken to the planning meeting for the next ABSW Summer School and some may be taken forward as stand alone events of the ABSW.