#WeAreAVA: The Faunalytics Team Goes To D.C.
Each year, the Animal and Vegan Advocacy Summit brings together animal advocates from around the world with the goal of inspiring and connecting us to make a difference for animals. This sounds like a lofty goal to be sure, but in practical terms, it is a 4-day opportunity for advocates to learn from each other, build and strengthen relationships through networking, strategize about future directions… and also have a little fun.Going to the AVA Summit can feel like a bit of a family reunion. You see colleagues and friends that you likely haven’t seen in person for months or years, you spend time catching up and sharing stories, talking about campaigns and other goings-on in the movement, and making up for lost time. It also feels like a bit of a family reunion for Faunalytics’ team: it’s one of the only times a year that our fully remote team is able to get together in person and connect with each other. While we already chat regularly in meetings, seeing each other in person always helps to deepen the camaraderie and culture of our organization.This year, you may have noticed that Faunalytics was everywhere. We went all in on this year’s conference, sending several staff members and two board members to the Summit — among us, there were four speakers, two moderators, two meet-up leaders, and (if we do say so ourselves) an awesome and engaging table. Since we were so visible and so present for AVA 2024, we thought it would be good to share our experience of the Summit back to you, to let you know just how much we got from it. We hope this may inspire you to attend a future conference if you’ve been considering it!
Brooke Haggerty, Executive Director
I spoke at the Opening Plenary, where I shared an overview of Faunalytics' work and the various ways we can help animal advocates be as effective as possible. I thought it was remarkable that, when I asked the nearly 800 advocates in attendance who had used research or data to inform their advocacy, nearly all hands went up! Later on in the summit, I also spoke on a fundraising panel with fellow leaders Monica Chen (New Roots Institute) and Ana Bradley (Sentient). Over 200 advocates attended the talk, and one of the biggest highlights for me was hearing that our panel was helpful, reassuring, and empowering for other leaders in our movement.
Björn Ólafsson, Research Liaison
At the danger of sounding a bit (vegan) cheesy, the connections I was able to make at AVA were absolutely incredible! As a speaker, I formatted my session about forging relationships between researchers and advocates — two groups that often operate independently of each other, at a detriment to both. In my talk, I explained how they can work together more and sparked some networking sessions; I even heard the conversations continuing in the lunch buffet later that day, which was a massive highlight. I spent every day talking to advocates I hadn't met before, asking them how they use research and how we can better support them… I totaled over 70 conversations by the end of the weekend! And who can forget the annual football/soccer game, in which Faunalytics-repping Team Blue emerged victorious?
Liz Wheeler, Philanthropy Officer
I've always felt incredibly proud to represent Faunalytics. I love sharing our mission, programs and research with those who can help make our goals a reality. My role primarily consists of making connections and building relationships, but sometimes emails and Zoom calls can't relay the deep gratitude we have for our donors and supporters. AVA allows us to connect in real life and build stronger bridges. A highlight of the summit was connecting with other fundraisers to find ways we can support each other. I was thrilled to lead a meet-up of over thirty fundraisers in the animal protection movement as we self-organized to collaborate. It’s an honour to be a part of a movement that uplifts one another, especially coming from a role traditionally known for being quite siloed. Together, I truly believe we can create a better world for animals. The AVA Summit is the place where this work starts.
Pona Tran, Operations Associate
I took AVA as an opportunity to learn about advocates in and outside of their work, given that in-person events are a welcome change of scenery beyond everyday email etiquette. Other than seeing other Faunalytics staff in person, some of my personal highlights included: meeting advocates from non-Western countries and hearing what animal advocacy work looks like for them, meeting with Operations staff from other organizations to discuss our work, and of course, building deeper relationships with attendees that I’ve met at previous events. Spending a few days together across borders and time zones always makes coming back to work more inspiring and motivating.
Jenna Riedi, Communications Manager
This was my second AVA summit, and it was so exciting to not only make new connections but also reconnect with folks I had the privilege of meeting last year. The food was fantastic, the sessions were invigorating, and I enjoyed the unique opportunity of getting to meet so many advocates while working at our booth. I hope folks enjoyed learning more about Faunalytics with me, and playing some Jenga trivia for delicious chocolates.
Coni Arévalo, Research Scientist
This was my first experience at AVA and it did not disappoint! I had a full schedule filled with meetups and talks every day, I held my first ever in-person office hours, and of course there was networking galore. I really appreciated the opportunity to moderate the panel on fashion and beauty with Nicole Rawling from Material Innovation Initiative and Hilary Pickles from LUSH. They discussed the state of the cruelty-free fashion and beauty industries, and our role as consumers and advocates in encouraging these industries to become more vegan.
It's difficult to pick just one highlight from the summit. The first was connecting with so many international animal advocates, especially with the Latin American advocacy community. As a Latina myself, it meant so much to be able to connect with other Latinx advocates in my native language, share experiences, learn about the work being done to protect animals throughout Latin America, and the work that still needs to be done. The other highlight for me was being with the Faunalytics team in person. It was such a gift to not only share that time with the other Faunalysts, but to also see them in their element, give talks on different topics, and just be the amazing animal advocates that they are. It made the whole experience that much more special.
Jo Anderson, Research Director
My AVA experience was primarily a whirlwind of networking. I sat down with more than 30 advocates and had briefer conversations with many others. The connections inspired research ideas, created opportunities for collaboration, and were just really energizing in terms of meeting other people who are doing incredible work for animals. I was also privileged to speak on the burnout and recovery panel, which was a real highlight for me — both participating in such an important conversation, and having the chance to connect afterward with several advocates who approached me to share their own stories of burnout and struggle. It was apparent that we need to bring more of these conversations into the open because it's not a unique struggle and sharing it lessens the burden as well as creating real bonding opportunities with others.
karol orzechowski, Content Director
AVA is always such a heart-filling time for me, and truly does feel like a movement reunion. Some of the advocates at the summit are people that I’ve known for close to 20 years, and who I’ve worked with on campaigns, investigations, and outreach before I joined Faunalytics. I also always enjoy the chance to connect with folks from organizations that I’ve met through the past decade of working with Faunalytics, especially when we get the chance to talk about strategy, projects, and how we can help them do their work more effectively. This year, I spent much of the Summit talking about AI and animal advocacy — co-leading a meet-up on the subject with Constance Li from Hive, and moderating a panel with Sam Tucker of Open Paws and Sean Rice, a Senior Biostatistician at Oregon Health & Science University. I also had the special honor of meeting a hero of mine in the movement, Gemunu de Silva — one of the most experienced investigators for animals, whose organization Tracks Investigations has been instrumental in bringing so many cruelties to light.
Caryn Ginsberg, Board President
As Faunalytics’ Board President, I gave a presentation on effective boards, drawing on my experience with Faunalytics and other organizations. I presented alongside Alexis Fox, Executive of The Pollination Project, who emphasized the importance of clarity for success. Together, we discussed how board members and senior staff need to understand their roles and manage their relationships to work together effectively. (Faunalytics invites application to serve on our board here.)
I also attended the Summit representing my strategy consulting work for Priority Visions — I took live visual “sketchnotes” of the daily plenary sessions as the graphic recorder for the conference. You can check out a gallery of some of those sketches below.
If you were one of the advocates we connected with AVA 2024, please accept our heartfelt gratitude. Our purpose is to help uplift and sharpen your advocacy efforts, and we’re so heartened to see the work you’re doing on behalf of animals. We’d like to give a special shout-out to those who visited our booth, especially those learning about us for the first time. If you left a research question on our giant piece of paper, you can expect a follow-up blog where we answer as many of the as we can!If you didn’t connect with us at AVA 2024, our (virtual) doors are always open. Contact us by email, send a query through our web form, or stop by our Office Hours.
The post #WeAreAVA: The Faunalytics Team Goes To D.C. appeared first on Faunalytics.
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