The Wild Things Conference Returns Saturday, March 1, 2025 - SOLD OUT
We’re thrilled to welcome you again to learn and share your expertise with our community. We’ve put together an exciting lineup of workshops and sessions from regional and national experts, plus meet & greets, video content, exhibitors, and sponsors. With over 140 presentations and discussion panels to choose from, the in-person program engages a diverse range of topics, research, and skills, and plenty of opportunities to meet with friends, old and new.
Thank you as well to our sponsors, scholarship supporters, and exhibitors who are all helping to make this another tremendously successful Wild Things.
Tickets for Wild Things 2025 are sold out. For additional information on the 2025 conference, visit wildthingscommunity.org.
**PLEASE NOTE: Some details are subject to change.**
NOTICE: Please be advised that photos and videos will be taken during Wild Things 2025. By attending, you consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded. Your attendance on this event constitutes your agreement to the use of any resulting media by Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves for promotional, marketing, or any other purpose in perpetuity, without further approval or any compensation.
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Avoesis—a form of quietness that is not precisely silence—is characterized by an absence of noise or βοή (boe) in Greek, a word that might also translate as clamor or din. In the auditory lull from noise, the benevolent presence of other species can be discovered. Even in the exceptionally noisy environments of cities, such moments of tranquility are possible.
In this presentation, I summarize my work over the past several years on the possibility of discovering pleasing soundscapes even when rebarbative noise dominates. What might ‘avoetic spaces’—places where nature can hold sway and people can hear themselves think—be like in cities? What are the benefits of designating these spaces for both human well-being and the flourishing of non-human communities?
