Our meeting was designed not just to gather ideas, but to align around a shared story and a compelling vision for scientific communication. To help guide this process, we turned to expert facilitators in marketing and storytelling—Courtney Babott and Jason Thompson—who could help us step back from our technical and disciplinary silos to see the bigger picture and imagine what a more connected future of science could look like.

Courtney at Wildly Open, brought her background in strategic marketing to lead us through exercises that helped clarify the tensions in our pre-survey work, identify our audiences through personas, and align our messages.

Jason, a strategic storyteller, challenged us to think creatively and collaboratively, using participatory methods to unlock new ways of communicating ideas and engaging diverse perspectives. The facilitators were supported by Heather, Courtney’s business partner at Wildly Open and Jillian Hale, Curvenote’s product lead. The number of facilitators meant that when we broke into groups of six, each group had someone taking notes and recording or prompting us to look a little deeper and imagine a future where science communication reflects the way science is actually done: iterative, collaborative, and dynamic.

Together, Courtney, Jason, Heather, and Jill guided us through a process that blended strategic storytelling and inclusive participation. Their approach wasn’t just about polishing a message — it was about finding the core ideas that connect us, and the strategies that will help us share those ideas with the broader community. By bringing these external perspectives into the room, they helped us chart a course that is not only technically sound, but also compelling, actionable, and grounded.