Q&A with Climate Week NYC’s Aka Nwosu
Climate Week NYC (CWNYC) is coming back on September 22 - 29, and it’s time to start planning! To help you guide you toward a fruitful CWNYC experience, we sat down with Aka Nwosu, Engagement Officer at the Climate Group and a former Redwood Climate Communications Intern. Drawing on our Climate Week NYC veteran status and Aka’s expertise, we put together some essential tips for attendees and event hosts to make the most of what’s become the biggest climate event of the year. Read on for our Q&A with Aka (edited for length and clarity):
Insights from Aka
First off, what is Climate Week NYC?
It's the largest climate event of its kind; essentially, it's a summit that brings together over 600 events, activations, and demonstrations across New York City every year, in person, hybrid, and online. It's a whole week dedicated to showcasing human innovation across different industries in the climate space, highlighting all the brilliant efforts being made to mitigate the damage done to our planet. Climate Group is the organization that platforms an official program of events, allowing attendees from all over the world and in New York City to network and participate in different activities centered around driving climate action forward. In 2023, we were described by the New York Times as “The Burning Man for Climate Geeks,” a testament to the week's focus on climate action innovation and community building across all industries.
Who are the typical people and organizations that attend Climate Week?
People: The beauty of Climate Week lies in how remarkably diverse it is. It really ranges, and we believe that taking climate action is not something that's reserved for just one group of people or one sector. Everyone can be a part of the solution, no matter their background or industry. I think that's what makes Climate Week NYC so successful. Attendees range from business leaders, political changemakers, civil society, and then everyday people– kids from Pre-K to high school and college, people in the private sector, the public, and more.
There's something for everybody!
Organizations: NGOs, government agencies, corporations, local grassroots organizations, institutions, high schools, universities, and industries are represented during the week.
Sectors: Energy, built environment, health, finance, arts and culture, just to name a few. It truly is all-encompassing.
How can attendees and event hosts leverage Climate Week NYC for personal and professional growth?
I can't think of a better time to build your professional and personal network than during Climate Week NYC. Not only is it happening in tandem with the United Nations General Assembly, but it's happening in New York City. Everybody's here. It's like this melting pot. It's such a critical city for climate action, and a lot of organizations and firms are based here.
My advice is to decide what you're trying to get out of the week beforehand. There's so much happening at the same time—hundreds of different activations across one week. Think, “What am I trying to accomplish here?”
I always encourage attendees to take a second to strategically decide what they want to get out of the week and then look at our website's calendar to optimize the events that best suit their goals. You can start by filtering your search results based on a theme that interests you, from energy to health, finance, and more.
For example, if you're looking to learn and develop new skills, you should streamline your search to educational sessions, workshops, and roundtables that feature world-class speakers who are experts in their field.
If you are looking to advance your career, focus on networking sessions.
If you want to give back to the community and volunteer, there are many Climate Week opportunities that focus on local and global communities engaging in street cleanups, beach cleanups, and volunteer activities.
Our website, very active social pages, and new app make it really easy for people to see what's happening and plan their week beforehand.
Can you share any tips for event hosts that you've learned as a member of the organizing team?
Let me start by saying it's always great to work with all kinds of people. I really enjoy it because it's so vast and diverse. All types of organizations come and host with us, so it's really nice to see all the different activations that make the week so impactful.
I always encourage event hosts to focus on the following:
The first is to have a clear objective for your events. Try to think of creative, interesting ways to make your agenda as niche and unique as possible. Whether you're trying to raise awareness about a less discussed topic or foster innovation in a certain industry, having specific objectives for your event will help guide your planning and execution process and catch attendees' attention.
Secondly, I really encourage event hosts to promote their events on social media. For context, in 2023, the #ClimateWeekNYC hashtag alone got 549 million impressions across all of our social media platforms. Additionally, the week is widely covered by all kinds of US and international media outlets. So it's really imperative to remember to post everywhere and use the hashtags for shareable content. It goes a long way in getting the word out about the great things that you're doing with your event. Our surveys show that 80% of people learn about events through our website, but it doesn’t hurt to take that extra step and promote it in your own way so that you can be even more visible.
Design a graphic that is creative and informative for your event listing.
I'd also say, invest a bit of extra time when crafting your event. Think of little things like making your event title catchy, because this can make a huge difference in piquing people's interest.
For example, last year, there was an event called “Earth Disco''. While the host organization specializes in impact-driven communications, they found a creative way to fuse the universal language of dance with climate advocacy. Unique approaches like that will catch people's attention and make visitors take a second look. Put in time and effort to think about interesting names for your events, good graphics, and informative descriptions.
Our team is always happy to work with hosts directly to help them structure their event to be as impactful as possible."
I encourage hosts to incorporate some sort of interactive element into their events. This could be a Q&A session where people can ask questions and interact with others, a live demonstration, or a video showing us what you’re talking about.
Be creative; these are just examples of ways to keep your attendees engaged and involved.
Lastly, I would really encourage hosts to lead by example in terms of implementing sustainable practices in their event planning. We hope to use the week to show people how it's done when it comes to sustainability. Remember to use environmentally friendly materials, reduce waste, and offset carbon emissions wherever possible. If you can, take public transportation or cycle to the venues. Whatever you can do to contribute to making the week as green as possible, I think would be great.
What are you looking forward to most this year?
Climate Group recently launched a new health program, which will be one of our 10 themes at Climate Week. This year, we collaborated with numerous partners in the healthcare sector, and we recognize that climate-related health impacts are a crucial aspect of the broader conversation when it comes to the climate agenda in general, so I'm looking forward to seeing all of the amazing new activations and solutions that will emerge through this program. I'm eager to see and connect with all of our first-time hosts.
Any final thoughts to share?
If you need help talking through an idea, agenda or objective for your Climate Week NYC event, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us as the organizers. The best ideas are born from a simple email introduction!
Have more questions for Aka and the organizing team? Reach out! Stay tuned for the interactive app!
Summary and Takeaways
Ready to plan your own event?
Redwood has years of experience attending on-the-ground and organizing virtual CWNYC events. We can help you amplify your climate solution during this crucial week for climate industries. Book a consultation now to avoid the last-minute scramble.
Our Takeaways and Advice
Set goals: Whether you’re attending multiple Climate Week events or hosting your own, decide ahead of time what you’d like to get out of your presence there.
You can’t do it all!
Figure out what your priorities are in advance
Use the event calendar to create your schedule
Know your audience: If you’re organizing an event, be specific about who you want to attend and what value you can offer them (knowledge, insights, networking, etc.).
Don’t be afraid to “niche down”--if you have expertise in hyper-specific technology, concept, or climate solution, embrace it and make it the focus of our event.
Think about how to capture and hold your audience’s attention
Can you add an interactive element?
Stand out: Be deliberate in identifying your personal or your organization’s unique attributes, perspectives, and/or contributions to climate progress, then make them the centerpiece of your events, activities, and conversations.
Have interesting and creative graphics and titles
Use social media to promote, and don’t forget the hashtags!
Tag Climate Group for an easy repost
Write compelling descriptions
Middle-of-the-week events do best
Stay in the know: Stay up-to-date, organized, and focused on your goals as you navigate hundreds of events and shifting schedules.
Use Climate Group for support
Check social media and the Climate Week NYC App
Check out Redwood’s events toolkit for more tips on how to make the most out of CWNYC and other industry events.
