Hosting a Global Swimways Webinar Marathon remotely – we did it!

Hosting a Global Swimways Webinar Marathon remotely - we did it!

One great thing about the World Fish Migration Foundation is that we don’t shy away from big ideas. However, when our founder, Herman Wanningen, suggested that we host a 24-hour webinar marathon on global swimways, most of us laughed. A global, nonstop webinar marathon that we had less than two months to plan? It sounded a little ludicrous, maybe even impossible. Nevertheless, the unprecedented global health crisis and the ambitiousness of our team gave us the courage to take the leap and say, let’s do it.

The idea surfaced in the first place after the spread of Covid-19 forced us to make the difficult but necessary decision to postpone World Fish Migration Day 2020 from May 16th to October 24th. Around the world, hundreds of events ranging from international conferences to small river outings were forced to cancel or postpone after months, even years of planning. We knew we needed to do something special to keep migratory fish and river warriors feeling connected and inspired, even during this uncertain time. We originally toyed with hosting a continent-by-continent webinar, spread out over a week or two. Then came Herman’s proposal: what if we consolidate all of the webinars into one?


When it came to planning this webinar, we were overwhelmed by both the enormity of the task and the enthusiasm of our partners. We decided to split the 24 hours into nine sessions, each representing a different region. This presented a challenge: although we have a global network, there were several areas of the globe where we had no connections. Our partners helped enormously by reaching out to their contacts from Uzbekistan to Costa Rica to Indonesia, which allowed for a more complete picture of the world’s swimways. Compiling, contacting, and confirming with over 62 speakers was no easy task, but every presentation, every bit of knowledge we learned about swimways near and far, was worth it.

After 2 months of tireless work and numerous “how to” Zoom meetings with the team, presenters, and even a Zoom professional, the day finally arrived: May 14th. Our director, Arjan, was to stay up for the full 24 hours, giving a background presentation and playing a Eurofishion song for each session. The rest of the core team, which spanned more than 5 countries, were involved in 2-3 sessions each. We had a few fears going into the webinar; hacks, technological issues, speakers not showing up, and lack of engagement from participants were some of the main worries. After weeks of troubleshooting these issues and preparing as best we could, we felt a sense of nervous confidence when pressing “start meeting.”

Then it began. From New Zealand to Hawaii, over the course of 24 hours, more than two-thousand people flooded into the webinar. There were 62 presentations from speakers around the world, some of which had only met our team one month earlier. Many participants were engaged, asking questions in the Q&As and introducing themselves in the chat. Each speaker took us on a journey through their local swimways, giving us the statuses, trends, challenges and successes they see in their daily work. We learned about the damming of the Amazon River in Peru, the migration of freshwater snails in Puerto Rico, dam removals from South Africa to Massachusetts, and the wondrous giants of the Mekong River in Southeast Asia. It was incredible to watch connections from across the globe as scientists and practitioners took inspiration for their own projects from rivers half a world away. Throughout all of the presentations, however, one thing remained clear: migratory fish are in decline around the world, and large scale interventions are needed to save them.