Nerd Nite St. Pete-May 2025

***Nerd Nite St. Pete is now held at Coastal Creative.***

We all know that learning is more fun when you’re drinking with friends. Nerd Nite operates in over a hundred cities around the globe including our city - St. Pete! This lecture event strives for an inebriated, salacious, yet deeply academic vibe. Several presenters totally geek out for 20 minutes each while guests drink and socialize. It’s like Ted Talk– with beer! Drink, learn, connect, and talk about fun, interesting stuff!

Doors and the bar open at 6pm. Early arrival recommended for food trucks and to save your seat. 
Food trucks: 

Masa Food Truck: https://www.masafoodtruck.com/

Nino's Pizza Truck: https://www.facebook.com/ninos...

Presentations begin promptly at 7pm. Tickets are $6.91. All tickets will be sold online.
No need to print tickets: Show your ticket on your phone or just give us your name and we will check you in.

Check out this month's speakers:

Jim Bays Presents: 

Diving Deep into the Soul of Our City: How Volunteers are Returning Nature to Our Urban Lake Shorelines

James Bays is a recently-retired ecologist who's studied, planned, and helped build wetlands across the U.S. and the world. Besides being a wetlander, he has birded in Asia, Africa, Europe and South America. Although Bays mostly grew up in Ohio, his M.S. degree was from the University of Florida and he has lived in St Pete since 2000. He is proud to say that this year he was awarded "Outstanding Volunteer of the Year" by the Florida Lake Management Society.

St Petersburg residents are fortunate to have many lake parks in the city! We relax, walk, bird, picnic, run - you name it - around them every week. His non-profit company, Stewards of Our Urban Lake (SoUL), thinks that the lakes are better than that - they see them as wonderful opportunities to bring more nature back into the City. With the help of volunteers over the years, they've shaped and revegetated the shorelines to be beneficial for wildlife that are easy on the eye and that require less maintenance by the City. Along the way, they've found community leaders who've helped drive these improvements. As President of SoUL, and as a retired ecologist, he will dive deep into the details on how they are doing this, and the progress they've made over the years.

Dawn Hunter Presents: 

Connection Before Content: The Secret Sauce to Better Communication

Dawn is one of the Nerd Nite St. Pete bosses, which means she’s usually behind the scenes  troubleshooting tech, wrangling slide decks, and making sure the night runs smoother than your third drink. But for this event, she’s stepping out from behind the clipboard to nerd out about what makes communication actually work. By day, she runs a business focused on healthy boundaries, joyful living, and redefining the way we think about work and rest. By night, she’s probably reading three books at once, brainstorming podcast episode ideas, and indulging in cozy vibes. She believes data is sexy, naps are sacred, and life is too short to be ordinary.

"Ever wondered why some conversations feel like a warm hug while others are as cold as a winter breeze? It's all about connection! Think of it as the secret sauce to making your messages stick like glue.We'll explore the magic of values-based messaging, setting the stage for communication that's not just heard but felt. Then, we'll sprinkle in some tools and strategies to help you discover your unique communication style. It's like finding your inner superhero and learning how to use your powers for good! Remember, people want to know you care before they care what you know. Let's make those connections count! "

Jasmine Scott Presents: 

No Such Place As “Away:” The Story of Your Garbage

Jasmine Scott is a zero-waste warrior at Pinellas County Solid Waste where she spends her days crafting engaging educational programming, managing projects, and drafting web and printed content, among other things. Her mission? To inspire folks to cut down on waste and recycle like pros! She can turn any conversation into a lively discussion about garbage or call it “trash talk.” Jasmine is a Louisville, Kentucky transplant who graduated from Loyola University Chicago with an undergraduate degree in environmental science. If she were to receive a superlative, it would be "Most Likely to Spot a Landfill While on a Road Trip."

Have you ever wondered where a garbage truck takes your trash? Yeah, didn’t think so! Jasmine, a garbage guru, will tell you everything you never wanted to know about how Pinellas County manages over one million tons of garbage at the Waste-to-Energy facility and one-and-only landfill at the Solid Waste Disposal Complex in St. Petersburg. You will walk away having discovered the “working face” of a landfill, learned that a ton weighs about the same as 5,500 Nerd Nite t-shirts, (who knew trash could weigh so much?), and unraveled the mystery of a “tipping floor.” She promises you’ll never look at your trash can in the same way again!