Wild Things 2025: Full Schedule

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.

11:15am CST

Community Leader Model: Community-Informed Engagement Work

Saturday March 1, 2025 11:15am - 12:00pm CST

Rooms 59, 60

Hear from the Friends of the Forest Preserves team about our four-year running community leader engagement model. We will be joined by Friends staff, as well as two community leaders to hear from them about their experience. What’s a community leader? For this session, a community leader is a member from the neighborhoods we are working to bring events and volunteer opportunities to. Community leaders have assisted at events, hosted and recruited participants for focus groups, helped with outreach efforts, helped build new connections to people and organizations, worked with event partners, recruited event attendees throughout the year, and provided valuable insight into local interests.

Presenters

Gloria Orozco

Joy Bailey

Youth and Engagement Corps Manager, Friends of the Forest Preserves

Reconnecting with the earth, interested in the Calumet Region, passionate about environmental justice, herbalism, and inclusive, community-based and place-based interpretive guiding, apprentice community steward Wooded Island, Jackson Park

Sydney Armstead

Engagement Program Manager, Friends of the Forest Preserves

Max Davis

Data and Evaluation Analyst, Friends of the Forest Preserves

Elizabeth Chambers

Saturday March 1, 2025 11:15am - 12:00pm CST
Rooms 59, 60

Community Engagement, Technical

Session Session Block B: 11:15 - 12 PM

1:15pm CST

Where do we begin; Impactful stories for social media

Saturday March 1, 2025 1:15pm - 2:00pm CST

Rooms 59, 60

This presentation will explore sustainable methods for creating and sharing impactful, science-based stories and other content through social media. The mechanics of social media often pressure us to create content solely to satisfy the algorithm. This process can be exhausting and unfulfilling for everyone involved. We will discuss ways to get closer to our unique perspectives and create a realistic plan of action and feedback to have the best shot at connecting with a genuinely engaged audience over time.

Presenters

Esther Ikoro

Saturday March 1, 2025 1:15pm - 2:00pm CST
Rooms 59, 60

Community Engagement, Technical

Session Session Block D: 1:15 - 2 PM