Bringing Global Climate Solutions into a Local Conversation
Bringing Climate Solutions to Kingston: A Conversation with Project Drawdown
Role: Dan Hendry
Year: 2020
During the COVID‑19 pandemic, I helped coordinate a virtual public event that brought global climate expertise directly to the Kingston community. The event featured Project Drawdown, an internationally recognized non‑profit organization focused on identifying and advancing science‑based solutions to address climate change. At a time when in‑person gatherings were not possible, the goal was to maintain momentum for climate education and keep meaningful community conversations alive.
I served as both the event coordinator and moderator, working to ensure a smooth and engaging experience while creating a strong connection between the speaker and the local audience. The event featured Dr. Jonathan Foley, Executive Director of Project Drawdown, and my role focused on helping translate a globally focused body of research into a format that felt accessible, relevant, and grounded in Kingston’s local context.
Beyond moderating the live question‑and‑answer discussion, I managed the full scope of event coordination. This included overseeing the technical setup and logistics of the virtual platform, organizing the structure and flow of the event, and ensuring a clear transition between the keynote presentation and audience participation. I also led outreach and promotional efforts to encourage broad community engagement, resulting in more than 100 people joining the event online.
Strong communication and partner coordination were central to the event’s success. I worked closely with Sustainable Kingston to align the conversation with shared climate goals and local priorities. Collaboration with the Kingston Frontenac Public Library made it possible to host the event through an established and trusted community platform. In parallel, I worked directly with Project Drawdown and Dr. Foley’s team to coordinate content, scheduling, and speaker support, ensuring that global research could be meaningfully shared at a local scale.
The response to the event reinforced the importance of accessible, science‑based climate communication. Successfully shifting to a virtual format during the pandemic demonstrated that meaningful public education and dialogue can continue even when traditional formats are disrupted. More importantly, it showed that communities are eager to engage with practical, solutions‑focused climate conversations when barriers to access are removed.
This experience reaffirmed a theme that has shaped much of my work: effective climate action depends not only on strong data and good ideas, but on thoughtful facilitation, trusted partnerships, and creating spaces where people feel invited into the conversation.
Related Links: Project Drawdown with Jonathan Foley - Kingston Frontenac Public Library
Kingston Project Drawdown Webinar — Sustainable Kingston