The Annual Association for Conservation Information conference is coming up soon in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Things you can expect. Wavin' wheat that can sure smell sweet, wind coming right behind the rain, and, of course, beautiful mornings, beautiful days and wonderful feelings. Rodgers and Hammerstein brought Oklahoma to life in one of the more renowned musicals, and now the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation is bringing the modern frontier to ACI's annual conference, which will take place July 20-23 at the Fordson Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City. If you're coming to ACI in Oklahoma, bring your favorite cowboy gear for the auction, just be cautious with pearl snap shirts in certain bars. Bring some cash and your A game for some great prizes. And check out this episode for many fantastic recommendations from OKDWC's Blake Podhajsky, Kelly Adams and Darrin Hill.

Conference Schedule

Alix Pedraza is the Director of Community Engagement at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. Over the last decade at the department, she has been working with Communities of Color, forging a relationship that empowers people to spend time in the outdoors recreating responsibly and connecting them to agency resources. Alix spent some time with The Outdoor Communicators Podcast host Tim Akimoff, of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, talking about how she built this program. If you want to learn more about Alix Pedraza and her program, please feel free to reach out to her.

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

Alix Pedraza - Director of Community Engagement

Office of External Affairs
P.O. Box 167, Columbia, SC 29202
Phone: (803) 734-9885

Email - pedrazaa@dnr.sc.gov

Kristy Dalton founded the Government Social Media Conference, (GSMCON) in 2015 after realizing there was a big need for navigating the fast-moving world of government social media. Now in its 11th year, GSMCON is the largest government social media conference in the world. We spoke with Dalton about the starting the conference, growing it and where things are headed with billionaires playing Monopoly with social platforms and the rise of AI.

Learn more about GSMCON

Connect with other government social media professionals

Connect with Kristy Dalton

Danielle Brigida is the Senior Director of Wildlife Communications & Strategy at the World Wildlife Fund. Prior to that role, she was a Deputy Director of Digital Strategy at the U. S. Department of the Interior and the National Social Media Manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Your host, Tim Akimoff of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, first met Danielle in her earlier roles and has often bounced ideas off of her and leaned on her vast experience over the years. It seemed a long podcast conversation was overdue, so pull up a chair and have a nice eavesdrop session on a conversation between two friends who have been bantering about conservation communication and the many challenges therein over the last decade.

Learn more about the World Wildlife Fund

Contact your host Tim Akimoff

timothy.a.akimoff@odfw.oregon.gov

(907) 887-4496

If you don't know Blake Podhajsky, Immediate Past President of ACI, you've been hiding under a rock. Blake has been a presence at the Association for Conservation Information for more than a decade now, and his recent two-year stint as president of the association resulted in a revamped conference planning process, a new association logo and a brand-new website. Blake has become a good friend to me over our years together in the association, and I thought it would be fun to poke around the areas of his life many of you may not know much about to hopefully reveal a bit about who Blake is, his vision for ACI and where he thinks we're going in the future. And if you are a fan of good practical jokes, stay tuned for a good one from ACI friend and mainstay, Eli Garnish.

If you have podcast topic ideas for me, please contact me at Timothy.A.Akimoff@odfw.oregon.gov

The 2025 Association for Conservation Information Conference will be held in Atlantic City, New Jersey July 21-24, and The Outdoor Communicators Podcast caught up with Linda DiPiano, supervising biologist with the Bueau of Information & Education at New Jersey Department of Environmental Protect Fish and Wildlife.

Please see this link for more information and to register for this year's conference.

Graphic design is a big part of communicating conservation, and even though it's a visual art, it often takes place behind the scenes in a busy communication team setting. Smokey Solis is the graphic designer for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, and like many of us, he wears many hats and has other duties as assigned, but it all comes back to good design. Smokey talked with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Tim Akimoff, host of the Outdoor Communicators Podcast, about how he got started in graphic design for a conservation agency and about what good design means to a team of people working together to convey many complicated aspects of fish and wildlife management. They migtht also have touched on tinned fish and tea, as Smokey and Tim share many affinities for fine tasting things and great design.

Questions about graphic design in conservation communication? Please feel free to reach out directly to Smokey Solis about those.

Smokey Solis

Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation -

1801 N. Lincoln Blvd.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
(405) 522-4028
smokey.solis@odwc.ok.gov

Invasive species are an increasing concern everywhere and a challenge for conservation communicators. The Hawaiian islands are next level when it comes to the challenges of dealing with invasive species and communicating to the local audience as well as the millions of tourists who visit the popular islands every year. Hawaii DNLR's Senior Communication Manager, Dan Dennison, spent some time talking with Tim Akimoff about communicating around invasive species at last year's ACI Conference in Virginia.

For a quick look at some of the many invasive species in Hawaii, please visit this link.