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Gudrun Sylte

Setting sails for climate

Three days at sea: How to board a three-masted barque with 80 sailors from business life, politics, youth and academia?

In a time when all ways of life are seen from a climate perspective, a travel to the Norwegian democracy festival Arendalsuka also gains attention. Not just to go there, but how to get there?

This is the story of how a challenge caught sail, transforming into a three day wind driven workshop and networking cruise, were a university rector, a CEO of a renewable energy company, a mayor, youths, professors and students together signed on to sleep in hammocks, work night and day to sail the ship Staatsraad Lehmkuhl from Bergen to Arendal in August 2019. Hard work and a lot of fun – this sums up both the process and the voyage.

In this presentation, I will give insight into an area where we stepped out of our comfort zone and did something completely different to achieve new insight, new network, new friends and attention.

What I Do

Gudrun Sylte is the head of Communication at the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, University of Bergen. Daily work includes both strategic and operational tasks like planning and coordinating events and communication projects, media relations, communication advices as well as content creation.