Over the years I have spoken to in excess of 10,000 people at public events, youth groups, festivals and other assorted events. Below is some of the feedback I have received from the organisers and audiences at some of these events.
13th January 2016 - Lecture (Shropshire): Lecture about the Square Kilometre Array at Telford and district Amateur Radio Society. Chairman of TDARS, Eric Arkinstall, said: "On behalf of Telford and District Amateur Radio Society, I would like to say a big thank you for a very interesting talk last night. As you are probably aware, by the rate of enthusiastic questions that were thrown at you, everyone was interested. We would definitely be interested, if you were to consider giving a similar talk, sometime in the not too distant future."
8th June 2015 - SciBAr (Bollington): @DaveNicoll said on Twitter: "Great explanation of when galaxies collide with a super Q&A afterwards. Thanks @AstroMeg"
23rd February 2015 - SciBAr (Macclesfield): "When Galaxies Collide!" at the Macclesfield SciBar, the Park Tavern, 6.30pm. @EntropyEvents said on Twitter: "Enjoyed a fascinating, enlightening & engagingly passionate SciBar talk on galactic collisions from @AstroMeg last night at @MaccParkTavern". Peter Nolan, organiser of the Macclesfield SciBAr, sent the following feedback: "May I, on behalf of all of us here at the Macclesfield SciBar and the Park Tavern, thank you for your wonderful presentation last Monday. I normally leap in after 45 minutes and call a break but you had reached such a tempo and level of engagement with the audience that I decided to let it go right through to its natural conclusion. This has never happened before but it was obviously due to the level of interest in your talk and your skill as a communicator." Another comment received following this talk: "[the] talk on 'When Galaxies Collide' was one of the finest we have experienced."
24th November 2014 - SciBar (Manchester): "When Galaxies Collides!" at the Salutation, 5.30pm. A blog post by James Redfern, the host for the evening, said: "the hypothetical torch was passed to Dr Megan Argo, presenting her Tour of the Universe. Megan brought her enthusiasm and love of all things space in an hour-long slide show of stunning images to help us explore the universe, and more interestingly, what would happen if two galaxies were to collide... Interspersed with examples of her own research, Megan was able to capture the imagination of the 30-strong crowd. Upon finishing, Megan was keen to answer the many questions from the audience, sharing yet more facts and info from her day-to-day job as a researcher working with Jodrell Bank (many of which were from me!). The Tour of the Universe was a great way to see out SciBar Hulme's first three months, and with a strong line-up in the pipeline, SciBar Hulme will be back on January 23rd 2015 for more scientific exploration in a pub. See you there!" Read the rest of the post.
1st September 2014 - SciBar (Knutsford): "When Galaxies Collide!" at the Knutsford SciBar, Knutsford Sports Club, 7.30pm. Feedback forms returned by the audience said (where 1 = very poor, 5 = excellent): Informative 4.84, Enjoyable 4.7, Stimulating 4.7, Participation 4.7, Overall 4.5. Comments included "A very successful and entertaining evening", "WOW!", "excellent", "superb presentation". When asked what they liked most about the evening, five people put "the speaker".
4th May 2014 - Tea & Talk at ArtSpace (Macclesfield): "When Galaxies collide!", over tea and cake at Artspace, Macclesfield. Poster artwork. Here is a review posted to the ArtSpace blog after the event:
"Dr Megan Argo, astrophysicist from Jodrell Bank, amazed and wowed us with a brief traverse across the universe taking in the processes of stars being born then dying and galaxies forming and then colliding, all with some stunning illustrations from optical and radio telescopes - our heads were spinning (like the stars it seems) - only the tea and cakes kept us down to earth!" (read the rest)
20 February 2014 - Kid's star party (Macclesfield): Tour of the Universe talk and solar system activity at the Macclesfield Astronomical Society Kid's Star Party at Macclesfield football ground. "Dr Megan Argo will kick off the evening with an interactive talk called "Around the Universe in a Flash". Megan is a skilled speaker with experience of inspiring children through her outreach activities to schools, brownies, cubs and scouts!" Event feedback: "It catered for all ages and abilities with an interest in astronomy. The speaker had a passion which came over and made her very easy to listen to. My granddaughter and I both really enjoyed it and she hasn't stopped talking about it." "My 5 year old was gripped from the start he sat and listened for 30 mins and asked questions to his grandad (who he went with) when the talk had finished" "Informative and interesting talk followed by great activities lead by enthusiasts"