Thursday, April 11, 2019

Interactive Workshop on How to Debate and Communicate Effectively About Hunting

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, in partnership with Responsive Management and the NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum, invite personnel from fish and wildlife agencies and nonprofit/ nongovernmental organizations that are committed to the promotion and defense of hunting to attend an interactive one-day workshop on how to debate and communicate effectively about hunting. The workshop, to be held May 15, 2019 in Dulles, Virginia, is the culmination of a year-long Multistate Conservation Grant project funded through the Wildlife Restoration Program (administered by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies). A formal agenda, including additional details regarding the workshop, will be sent to attendees following registration.

Now more than ever, legal, recreational hunting in the United States is under fire from anti-hunting animal rights activists. Through distorted and cherry-picked statistics, blatant appeals to emotion, and outright falsehoods, these anti-hunting forces are too often able to claim victory in the court of public opinion. Successful attacks on hunting amount to costly public relations setbacks, in turn eroding the reputation of the sport and contributing to further restrictions on access, opportunity, and support for an activity that lies at the heart of the American conservation success story. Simply put, members of the wildlife profession need to become better defenders of hunting in public and in private.

The purpose of the May workshop is to teach pro-hunting audiences how to use winning debate tactics to successfully communicate the benefits of hunting to others, thereby helping to build long-term support for hunting. To accomplish this, the project partners have retained the services of Samuel Nelson, director of Cornell University’s debate team (ranked as the No. 1 university debate team in the world) and a world-renowned expert on argumentation and persuasive communication. The workshop will begin with a hands-on demonstration of the challenge of how to argue effectively, with attendees being invited to debate a seasoned expert on the merits of hunting as a tool for conservation. Holding these initial mock debates in a relaxed, light-hearted environment will immediately set the stage for the day’s goals.

The workshop will rest on a foundation of new research that was undertaken for the project, which built on a major nationwide study on animal rights and animal welfare issues funded by the National Rifle Association’s Hunters’ Leadership Forum (the NRA-HLF graciously allowed the use of this data to chart the initial course for the current debate study). The first phase of the debate study involved an exhaustive review by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Responsive Management of more than 70 individual pro- and anti-hunting messages and communications themes (these themes are used as the basis of individual arguments both defending and attacking hunting).

To accurately determine the most compelling pro-hunting arguments and the best counterarguments to anti-hunting attacks, the relative effectiveness of each theme was tested with U.S. general population residents in a nationwide series of focus groups. The results of this message testing, including a breakdown of the most effective pro- and anti-hunting arguments, will be summarized by Responsive Management Executive Director Mark Damian Duda during the morning session of the workshop. The research will then be put into practice in the afternoon through role-playing exercises and individual lessons demonstrating how to frame issues, enlist audiences on the right side of the issue, and maximize the credibility of pro-hunting entities and speakers, as well as other essential techniques to successfully debate on behalf of hunting.

The workshop is being organized by Blake Henning, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Chief Conservation Officer, and Mark Damian Duda, Responsive Management Executive Director. Henning and Duda, along with attorney and author Michael Sabbeth, will provide subject matter expertise and cover the results of the research, while the debate and argumentation instruction will be handled by Sam Nelson and his partner, John Stowell. Stowell brings to the table a wealth of real-world experience with messaging and consumer insights, strategic marketing, and brand innovation, notably through several decades of work for Coca-Cola, Mitsubishi, and other major brands.

Workshop attendees will learn how to:

1) Think strategically about making your messages have the best impact.

2) Enhance your ability to think quickly on your feet.

3) Structure your best persuasive response to any argumentative attack.

4) Turn your critics' arguments against them.

5) Eloquently pivot to your strengths.

6) Focus on what matters the most and stay on point.

7) Keep your cool even when faced with audaciously stupid and annoying people.

8) Best handle difficult questions.

9) Improve your critical listening skills.

10) Get the audience on your side with strong concluding remarks.

The overall goal of the workshop is to institutionalize the right way forward for those committed to protecting the future of hunting. Over the course of an entertaining and insightful day, attendees will learn how to correct misperceptions, concisely lay out evidence, and craft a compelling case on behalf of hunting. By doing so, the conservation community will help to secure the future of hunting in the United States through tactics and strategies proven to persuade and convince. The cost to attend the workshop is $149 for state fish and wildlife agency personnel and $249 for employees of nonprofits and NGOs (this cost includes breakfast, lunch, and beverages). Space is limited—please contact Responsive Management at workshop@responsivemanagement.com to reserve your seat today.

Workshop subject matter experts include Blake Henning, Chief Conservation Officer, Rocky Mountain Elk

Foundation; Mark Damian Duda, Executive Director, Responsive Management; and Michael Sabbeth, attorney and author/lecturer on ethics, hunting, and rhetoric. Workshop debate and communications experts include Samuel Nelson, Cornell Debate Team Director and expert on argumentation and persuasive communication; and John Stowell, expert in consumer insights, strategic marketing, and brand innovation.