On this page:

1. Up-coming Climate Change Condensed courses
2. Basic information on what the course covers
3. What past participants have said about the course
4. Run a training in your area
5. Contact COIN

1. Up-coming course dates

None listed at present, but more coming SOON!

Private course dates:

None listed at present.

2. Basic information on what the course covers

COIN has created a fantastic new 3-hour 'all you need to know' course which uses the carefully-concocted recipe of expert knowledge (we bring the experts to you on film), group discussion and pair work.

We ask you to come with your ideas and concerns and we will give your confidence a power-boost and give you the energy to go back out and get active.

The course covers the basic science of climate change; extreme weather & home impacts; what the opinion polls tell us about public feeling on climate change; what the politicians & leading experts are saying; feelings which climate change brings up for us all; why is it important to take urgent action?; how much time we have in which to act; emissions reductions and different possible scenarios; can it be done?; where do we start?; look at your own life and consider what action you can take right now which will have an effect; how do we create change? - strategies for different groups/situations; group pledges...

It is divided into the following sections:

• The causes of climate change
• The impacts
• The consensus
• Accepting and feelings
• Why take action?
• The Carbon Budget
• Doing it
• Personal Carbon emissions
• Positive visions
• Five strategies for moving forward

3. What past participants have said about the course

Feedback is hugely important to us in the development of our training, and we've been getting some really great feedback on this course. Here are some taster quotes:

‘Great fun - definitely not the usual lecture!’ Helena Nielsen, retired

‘A tour-de-force (on) the issue of the age.’ Matt Carmichael, teacher, writer, entrepreneur

‘Meaningful and serious, yet completely accessible course, that didn’t scare but made me feel empowered.’ Nathan Kauzmarski, Transport Planner

‘Eye-opening and informative session which has empowered me to use my skills to spread the message about climate change.’ Anon

‘Fully informative and fully enjoyable, fills you with motivation to tackle climate change.’ Anon

‘Should be compulsory.’ Ray Theisen, Biodiversity Officer

‘Pithy - inspired and focused.’ Susan Dye, Administrator

‘If people are properly informed, they might just change their ideas and their actions. This course ignites you enough to do just that.’ Luke Purse, Renewable energy/sustainability consultant

‘A worthwhile, interesting & informative course – a must to gain a better appreciation of the realities rather than hype via media.’ Keith Rog, Business Advocate

4. COIN is now taking country-wide bookings for the course

COIN has been working with a range of partners to offer Climate Change Condensed around the country. Partners to date include Manchester Is My Planet; Sheffield Climate Action; Vision 21 & Cheltenham FOE; The Environment Council. Join this list and work in partnership with COIN to host a training in your area - you can do this as an organisation, but we are also happy to work with individuals - so if you're interested, please do contact us! Email mim@coinet.org.uk or give her a call on 01865 727911 to find out how a partnership works - we can email you a copy of our Partnership Protocol which clarifies roles for an effective relationship.

5. Contact COIN

If you have any queries regarding Speaker Training, please contact Mim Saxl at COIN on T. 01865 727911, mim@coinet.org.uk

To find out about a specific aspect of Speaker Training on the list below, click its name, and you will be taken to the appropriate section (Please note this is currently not working but should be possible shortly). Otherwise, please browse all the training and specialist speakers by scrolling down the page.

On this page:

1. Up-coming Speaker Training days
2. Introduction to COIN Speaker Training
3. JOIN THE THOUSAND SPEAKERS PROGRAMME
4. What the training supplies
5. If you wish to attend a training
6. If you wish to hold a training in your local area or organisation/place of work
7. Rates for holding a training near you
8. Comments from past participants
9. Contact COIN

Next training dates:

1. Up-coming public Speaker Training days:

None listed at present.

1.b. Up-coming private course dates:

None listed at present.

What is COIN Speaker Training?

2. Introduction to our Speaker Training programme

COIN's intensive one-day training course gives participants the text, information, skills and confidence to prepare and deliver a persuasive half hour talk on climate change. Participants are guided through a template talk on the causes, impacts and solutions of climate change, working in pairs and small groups to practice their presentation.

‘Inspiring & motivating. A new political experience but without the party politics. I felt warm, wanted and totally energised.’ Diana Korchien, Flipside Vision

The training achieves far more than simply providing information. Through role-plays participants explore what qualities make a good (and a bad) public speaker and in small groups they explore their own fears about public speaking. The training gives them skills to deal with sceptics and ‘difficult’ audiences. It gives speakers the confidence that they can speak powerfully without being a scientific expert by talking from their own experience, hopes and fears.

The trainings are always fun and motivating events and participants have greatly enjoyed meeting like-minded people and sparking new ideas.

3. JOIN THE THOUSAND SPEAKERS PROGRAMME

COIN has been training people to speak on climate change since 2003. Over 95% of participants have reported that are “very satisfied” with the course. Typical comments include: “Inspirational, engaging and fun day. I'd recommend it to anyone who is considering giving talks to spread the message”; “really good confidence building”; and “the handouts were so useful and excellent quality”.

In 2007-8, we set a bold new target- to train over 1000 people to take the message of climate change back into their own communities. So when you attend a speaker training you become a member of a large and growing community of speakers working together to create real change.

‘Rewarding and inspirational - never thought talking about climate change could feel so positive!' Ali Hines

‘Exceptionally useful training that gave me the structure, foundation and clarity to speak to groups about climate change.’ Alexis Garnaut-Miller, Corporate Wellness

4. What the training supplies

- A Speaker Training pack
A well-presented and carefully designed pack is given all participants. It contains the text of a full 30 minute talk which we call the ‘Template Talk’; a ‘Speaker Training Resource Sheet’ with a list of handy printed materials, online climate news, online video clips, resources for children, background reports and for running meetings; and six factsheets on ‘Moving People’, ‘Engaging your audience’, ‘Speaking Skills’,‘ Climate Change Impacts’ ‘Dealing with Counter Arguments’, and ‘Managing Discussion in Climate Change Talks’.

‘A very thorough ‘kit’ to make a successful climate change presentation.’ Mary Kimble, Institute fro Transport Studies, Leeds University

- An opportunity to meet new people
The highly interactive format of the training enables all participants to meet, share ideas and get to know each other. Many people have created new and lasting contacts at the COIN trainings.

‘I found the day uplifting, as it was very encouraging to be surrounded by people with like-minded views, and it was good to feel you are just as qualified as everyone else’ Monica Srivastava

- Membership of a speaker support network
People who have passed through the trainings will be subscribed to an e-mail and web-forum-based network to register the talks they have given, and exchange their successes, frustrations, and advice. As the programme builds COIN will provide updates and gatherings.

5. If you wish to attend a training

New trainings are regularly announced above and in the COIN newsletter. To join the newsletter, send a blank e-mail to newsletter-subscribe@coinet.org.uk.

‘A shot in the arm, a real boost. Motivating.’ Douglas Coker

‘Extremely interesting training. That will be very useful for my job.’ Baishakhi Sengupta, London Borough of Camden

6. If you wish to hold a training in your local area or organisation/place of work

Speaker Trainings are usually organised in partnership with another organisation, business, local authority or interested individual. COIN provides two trainers for each event, all materials and wider publicity if needed. The partner provides the venue, participants, publicises the event and pays a standard fee. The partner chooses whether the training is for its own staff or members or the wider public and how much it wishes to subsidise or charge participants.

For an additional fee COIN can adapt the one-day event to meet your specific needs. We can provide a half day course or weekend training. We can design new content to address the needs of specific audiences. And we can include materials and training on the theory of climate change communications and the techniques of one-to-one engagement. This is all possible, do ask us!

7. Rates for holding a training near you

Our fees operate on a sliding scale, based on the size of the partner organisation and/or size of the training group. We ask also that facilitator travel is covered on top of the fee, and that if need be, the facilitators are provided with somewhere to stay if they need to travel a long distance.

8. Comments from past participants:

‘Whether a climate change expert or novice, this session will give you the confidence to talk authoritatively & passionately about this massive topic.’ Peter Hall, Earthwatch

‘I found the day uplifting, as it was very encouraging to be surrounded by people with like-minded views, and it was good to feel you are just as qualified as everyone else’ Monica Srivastava

‘I feel I have moved from amateur to (almost!) professional in just one day’s workshop. Thank you.’ Polly Higgins, The Lazy Environmentalist

‘A fantastic day that gives you confidence to go and talk to people about climate change.’ Anna Portch, Eco-Active

‘Brilliant!’ Caroline Fernandez-Women’s Environmental Network

‘I found it utterly interesting.’ Fiona Booth, Guildford Council

9. Contact COIN

If you have any queries regarding Speaker Training, please contact Mim Saxl at COIN on T. 01865 727911, mim@coinet.org.uk

Communicating Climate Change

A day's course on communicating the most pressing issue of our time

On this page:

1. Up-coming Communicating Climate Change trainings
2. Introduction to course and basic programme
3. Hear what people are saying about our communication training - attendees love it!
4. Praise from Derbyshire County Council for the training

On this page:

1. Up-coming courses
2. Basic information on what the course involved
3. Run the course near you!
4. Contact COIN

1. Up-coming courses

No public courses listed at present, but more coming soon, so watch this space!

2. What the course involves

A three hour course, designed to enable people at work to overcome climate sceptics in the workplace. It is based on COIN's continuing work on responding to climate denial - the very human and understandable response to climate change.

It includes all the COIN techniques of uncovering why people deny that climate change exists; how to overcome colleague's denial; dealing with our own feelings of hopelessness; looking forward to a low carbon society and our place in it; and what kind of actions are available to everyone.

During the training you will identify some persuasive role-models; you will look at some clear tactics for targeting what you say to your audience, and discover what language might work for what personality. The course also covers answers to some of the most common denial arguments.

Never lose a climate change argument again!

'I'm now ready to argue.' Siobhan Buttimer, Administrator

‘Thank you for an enjoyable, informative and easy-to-handle course for improving one’s confidence on communication on climate change.’ Jeremy Hunter

3. Run this training near you!

Like all of COIN's trainings, we are keen to run this training as widely geographically as possible. It is a relatively new course, and has been run in partnership with The Environment Council, and soon DEFRA, but we're looking for further partners. Join this list and work in partnership with COIN to host a training in your area - you can do this as an organisation, but we are also happy to work with individuals - so if you're interested, please do contact us! Email mim@coinet.org.uk or give her a call on 01865 727911 to find out how a partnership works - we can email you a copy of our Partnership Protocol which clarifies roles for an effective relationship.

4. Contact COIN

Contact mim@coinet.org.uk for more details, or ring us on 01865 727911.

COIN and Ruskin College (the trade union college) are working together to present COIN's courses on climate change for trade unionists. These are courses which can be arranged at work or after working hours wherever they are required. They can be run in Trade Union venues, colleges, workplaces or schools. COIN's trainers come to you!

Turning Your Ideas into Action

Throughout 2006, COIN worked with interested individuals, COIN supporters and other Oxford groups to establish Climate Change Action Groups. In 2007 COIN worked with Sheffield Climate Action and Camden Climate Action Network (CAN) to pilot the concept in other parts of the country.

Dates for your diaries: COIN is currently taking a break from events, but watch this space for event announcements in early 2008...

2007 events:

29.11.07 - Rob Hopkins – ‘Planning for Life After Oil - the Transition Concept’ – find out how to inspire and plan energy descent in your town

22.11.07 - 'Growing local in a changing climate: impacts and adaptations on allotments’ - an event in association with the Oxford Allotment Federation

12.11.07 - Ann Pettifor – ‘Avoiding the 'iceberg' of climate: re-routing the Ark'

07.11.07 - George Monbiot – ‘Climate Change - a global injustice’ – a look at the development and poverty aspects of climate change

24.10.07 - George Marshall launches his new book – ‘Carbon Detox: your step-by-step guide to getting real about climate change’ – a fast-moving presentation on how to feel positive and effective

08.10.07 - ‘The Power of Community – How Cuba Survived Peak Oil’ (film followed by discussion) – an inspiring example of existence without oil

04.06.07 Leo Hickman launches his new book 'The Final Call: the true cost of our holidays'

Is the end in sight for our carefree holidays in the sun?

Or is this whole impact-of-aviation thing being overdone?

Leo Hickman, Guardian journalist and author of brilliantly informative and funny ‘A Life Stripped Bare’, makes green issues interesting and fun and is famous for his attempt to live ethically for a year. Leo now turns his attention to the holiday industry, gives us a much-needed opportunity to think about what we are doing in the light of climate change and launches his new book.

‘Excellent. One of the clearest and most sobering analyses I've ever seen of the environmental, social, and economic damage done by tourism...This is a necessary book.’
Philip Pullman

The event is a COIN and Blackwell partnership.

'We have got to find a way to shift to a slow-travel culture. Our very survival as a species could well hinge on it. I very much hope this important book helps to awaken people, and make them want to join the debate.'
Jeremy Leggett

Clubbing in Ibiza; Cruising the Caribbean; Luxuriating in Dubai; Skiing in the Alps; Backpacking in Thailand...

We are all keen tourists. And tourism is the biggest service industry in the world. It employs one in every eleven workers on the planet. Yet while it is built on the sale of fantasies, the unsettling truth is that behind the sunny façade of swimming pools, smiling locals, stunning sights and exquisite cuisine, there is all too often an ugly, damaging reality and it is spreading unchecked to all corners of the globe.

This is an investigative travelogue, written as Hickman journeys around the world, from theme park to golf course, from sunlounger to ecolodge. At each destination we hear from the key protagonists: the holidaymaker, waiter, hotelier, souvenir-seller, prostitute, environmentalist, tour guide, chambermaid and the local politician.

All of them want us to ask ourselves some hard questions: Who really pays for our trip away? And is it even possible to have a ‘good’ holiday?

Here is the story of what they don’t tell you in the glossy brochures.

More praise for the book:

'Hickman has hit on an important subject and it deserves to be taken seriously.'
John Humphrys

'Well written, entertaining and hugely important.'
Zac Goldsmith

'A fascinating and harrowing read. I doubt anyone has spelt out the inherent dangers of tourism so clearly before. The publication of this could well prove to be a 'tipping point'.'
Jason Webster, author of GUERRA

'Leo Hickman's enthralling book should be read by politicians, students and, most of all, by every would-be tourist.'
Tahir Shah, author of THE CALIPH'S HOUSE

15.05.07 Mark Lynas launches his new book Six Degrees: our future on a hotter planet

An eye-opening and vital account of the future of our earth and our civilisation if current rates of global warming persist, by the highly acclaimed author of High Tide.

This is the first time we have had a reliable picture of how the collapse of our civilisation will unfold unless urgent action is taken.
Most vitally, Lynas’s book serves to highlight the fact that the world of 2100 doesn’t have to be one of horror and chaos. With a little foresight, some intelligent strategic planning, and a reasonable dose of good luck, we can at least halt the catastrophic trend into which we have fallen. But the time to act is now.

‘Not unworthy of comparison with Orwell and certainly the breaker of new ground.’
Independent

Past 2007 events in Bristol in partnership with Agoraspace:
October 18th Climate Change - a global injustice with George Monbiot, in partnership with Oxfam SW Campaigns
May 10th Six degrees - our future on a hotter planet with Mark Lynas
June 7th Holidays - time to think again? with Leo Hickman
June 28th Re:Versing the damage with Steve Larkin
July 19th Building for Climate Change with Susan Roaf and George Marshall

Upcoming event!

Oxon Ideal Green Home Show

Thursday 17th April 6-9pm, Oxford Town Hall

• Find the advice, products and installers to transform your home

• Speak to suppliers and service providers for eco-renovation, energy efficiency and renewable energy

• Learn from people who have eco-renovated their homes: see presentations and case studies showing how local people have achieved up to 80 % reduction in home energy consumption
  Presentations will run 6.15 - 7pm and 8.15 - 9pm

• Link with others who want to take the next step with eco-renovation

• Meet people in your area interested in eco-renovating their homes, share experiences and info, 7- 8pm

All for £2 suggested donation on the door

For further information, details of case studies and exhibitors, visit www.ecovation.org.uk or call 01865 727911, and ask for Toni.

COIN believes that effective public engagement requires a diversity of messages and styles. We also believe that the existence of a strong and vocal movement for change will be vital for generating the government policy changes needed to support personal emissions reductions. We are committed to helping other organisations find their feet, in order to strengthen the climate movement as a whole.