What an honour it was to be the guest speaker at The Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s AGM & Member’s Day yesterday (19.10.19) on my home ‘turf’ in Manchester, at Lancashire Cricket Ground.

My friend, Charlotte, volunteer, Flo, Gill Perkins CEO and I

I strongly bee-lieve that making events like this accessible and open to a younger generation, is absolutely key to inspiring the next generation of conservationists.

Workshops & demos

Charlotte, Flo and I

Thanks to my friend from Young Operation Farm, Charlotte for coming with me. She was my ‘chief-clicker’, making sure the slideshow of photos, complimented my speech.

Great to meet Flo; a volunteer from Margate, who helps her Dad on the Sunken Garden Revival Project.

There was some cool, interactive demos, such as a bumblebee identification stall and ‘how a bee sees the world’. You had to put special glasses on and with the use of ultra violet light, you could look at flowers in a different way than us humans see them!

AGM & Member’s Day

The main event was kicked off with a welcome & opening address by Gill Perkins CEO. After the formal bit of the AGM, there were lots of project updates, which were really interesting.

I was a bit nervous as I sat there, ready to go on stage.

My speech – for the love of gardening

My speech was titled, ‘for the love of gardening’ and it included my gardening journey as an RHS Ambassador. You can have a watch of the YouTube video of the speech here:

Here’s the presentation that complimented the speech:

and I understand that not everyone wants to watch a video and maybe you can’t hear what I’m saying (it’s not the best quality vid), so here’s a written version of my speech.

Other speakers included

Pollinating the Peak

I was particularly interested in this project as it’s right on my doorstep!

Pollinating the Peak is an ambitious natural heritage project based in Derbyshire, raising awareness of the links between our countryside, food and bumblebees

Making a buzz for the coast

This exciting and ambitious project spans 135 miles of Kent’s coastline from Dartford to Deal, and focuses on restoring and creating habitat for Kent’s wild bees, especially the Shrill carder bee

The short-haired bumblebee reintroduction project

The Short-haired bumblebee reintroduction project aims to reintroduce this lost species to the UK, raise awareness of bumblebee and flower meadow declines, increase resident rare bumblebee populations, and recreate and give advice on managing and maintaining flower rich areas

In search of the Great Yellow Bumblebee

In search of the Great Yellow Bumblebee, presenting sounds from a recent recording trip to Uist by Mark Ferguson

Road verges for bumblebee conservation

Lots of thanks and praise to the many volunteers that support the work of the trust

Traineeships and what they have achieved

As I said, it was a real pleasure and honour to guest speak at such an important event in the conservation calendar. Events like these fuel my passion further and I know they will influence my future. Thanks to the organisers for inviting me, again it was a wonderful opportunity for a young person to be amongst like-minded people, who are working so hard for wildlife conservation.