eRIKA CRINO AND MATT HOFFMANN





25 NOVEMBER 2015
TORONTO



Matt Hoffman writes ...


"The event went amazing from my perspective. Erika's playing was beautiful and she picked music that was really spot on for the event. The space was great too, great acoustics and wonderful for engaging conversation.

The audience was really quite diverse and included my parents (who just happened to be in town visiting for the weekend) to piano students of Erika's to a range of people from the public (~35 people in total). They ranged from very knowledgeable about climate change (there was one climatologist from the university who I know in attendance) to not knowledgeable at all. When I had them talk to their neighbors the conversation was really quite lively. The large group discussion was a bit more of a traditional Q and A than I hoped would be the case, but the questions were really diverse and there was some back and forth amongst audience members in that part. The audience members really wanted to talk and learn and the discussion lasted longer than I thought it would. One particular comment struck me--a person asked/suggested that this kind of event be expanded to other kinds of venues. This indicated to me that people found the kind of engagement really valuable.

For me personally, this was incredibly rewarding--I'm always seeking out different ways to engage people on climate issues beyond the audiences I normally interact with (students and other scholars for the most part). Climate Keys was a unique and really enjoyable means of doing so. I left the event thinking about how this model could be applied and expanded (and how I could do more of this)."