Published October 28, 2021
The Invasive Species Council of BC (ISCBC) was pleased to host the 2021 Invasive Species Research Conference – Turning Science into Action on October 6 and 7, 2021.
The virtual conference welcomed 176 attendees and successfully facilitated connections between invasive species researchers and practitioners in the Pacific Northwest.
Day One featured a keynote presentation, concurrent sessions, ePoster sessions and facilitated “Meet the Speaker” and general networking sessions. Our day one keynote address, “Global Trends in Invasions and Strategies to Manage Them”, was presented by Dr. Laura Meyerson, a professor from the University of Rhode Island and was met with great interest and enthusiasm from attendees.
On Day Two, attendees participated in more networking sessions, a keynote presentation, a session on climate change, and a facilitated invasive species research priorities for BC workshop. The keynote address was presented by Dr. Cascade Sorte from the University of California and explored the topic of ‘Predicting impacts of species invasions under climate change.”
Student Awards Recognize Excellence in Research
ISCBC was also proud to present student awards to acknowledge the contributions that students make to research on invasive species, and also to encourage excellence in student research and presentations. Winners of the awards were chosen by conference attendees through an anonymous poll after all presentations were complete. The recipients of the two awards were:
- Best Student Presentation – Em Lim, Simon Fraser University – Invasion of the body snatchers: Parasites alter behaviour and morphology of an invasive snail
- Best Student Poster – Rebecca Nelson, University of California Davis – The effects of Vicia villosa invasion on grassland plant-pollinator interactions
Conference Recordings Now Available
Missed a session? You can now watch the recordings from the conference! Attendees can use their Pheedloop access link to watch all session recordings from both days (including concurrent sessions) online through the event portal. Simply enter the portal as you did during the live event and navigate to the session recording you wish to watch.
Access Recordings With Post-Event Ticket
Were you unable to attend the conference? Post-event tickets provide you with access to all session recordings from both days (including concurrent sessions). Join ISCBC as a member and save $40 on your ticket.
What did our attendees say?
“What an amazing conference! Thank you all who made this a reality!”
“Impressed that the platform used allowed for concurrent sessions. I enjoyed that presentations were short and concise.”
“I enjoyed the topics covered, I felt they were well varied, informative, and relevant to the issues we face today.”
“This is my field of study and I love connecting with others within that field and learning more about the research that is going on.”
“I really enjoyed the integration of machine learning and geographic imagery in tackling the invasive species problem and believe these will be important tools going forwards! I would love to see more speakers tackling these subjects- if they’re out there.”
Conference Support
The 2021 Invasive Species Research Conference was made possible by support from our generous sponsors:
Looking forward
Your feedback is important to us and how we shape future Research Conferences. We will continue to review attendee survey responses to inform event planning.
“It would be useful to have practitioners from provincial ministries who may be able to shed light on some of the research that has already occurred and the results.”
“Include research on human/indigenous relationships with native and invasive plants.”
“Concurrent sessions make it difficult to participate in relevant interest topics when they occur at the same time.”
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