2016 Nature-Based Therapeutic Conference Speak! A Kinship of All Creatures: Broadening our Knowledge of Human-Animal Interactions Wednesday, October 26, 2016  8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. MacMillan Auditorium, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum directions Speak! is about our human partnership with animals, the natural world and the way in which positive interactions with animals increases individual health and community well-being. This conference will provide participants with a new understanding of animal intelligence and how the knowledge will advance the field of human-animal interactions. It is an opportunity for professionals, academics, and practitioners within schools, social services, healthcare clinics, community-based organizations and families to exchange ideas, discuss and collaborate in animal intelligence.

The purpose of Speak! is to:

• Broaden our knowledge of animal intelligence
• Deepen our understanding of animal feelings
• Transform the way we view non-human animals
• Apply practice skills and methods with animal emotions in mind
• Inspire and delight the audience with new sounds and information

Schedule

8:00 - 9:00
Registration

9:00 - 9:30
Opening/welcome

9:30 - 11:00 
"The Inner Lives of Animals" (View the video)
Hear the latest information pertaining to animal's emotional intelligence. Dr. Balcombe will prepare the audience for the day with an overview of animals' emotional and cognitive worlds, and what this means to us a society (includes time for Q&A).
Jonathan Balcombe, Ph.D. is an ethologist (animal behavior) scientist, and passionate advocate for animals. He has written extensively about animal pleasure and his latest book explores the lives of fishes. Learn more from this interview Dr. Balcombe does with NPR about the inner lives of fish.

11:00 - 11:15
Break

11:15 - 12:15
"Becoming a Solutionary" (View the video)
Understand how you can become a force for positive change for animals, people, and the environment that sustains us
     Zoe Weil is the co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education and author of over six books. Her life's work has been to create informed, conscious and caring citizens who will make the world a hopeful and peaceful place for all human and non-human animals to live.

Multi-Media Musical Performance with a focus on human, animal and earth relationships (View the video)
    Reb L. Limerick is a performance artist and MFA Candidate at the University of Minnesota in Experimental and Media Arts.

12:15 - 1:30
Break/Lunch

1:30 - 3:00
"Creature Comforts: Ours or theirs?"  (View the video)
Drill down deeper into strategies and applications integrating animal emotional intelligence into the practice of animal-assisted interactions.
     Ann Howie is a clinical social worker and author of training books on handler skills and animal-handler evaluation methods. She has been integrating animals in her clinical practice and training others to promote animal skills through positive reinforcements since 1987.

3:00 - 3:15 
Break

3:15 - 4:15
"Through a Dog's Ear: "Canine and Feline Sound Therapy for Improved Health and Behavior" (with live piano demonstrations) (View the video)
Lisa and Joshua will provide a unique demonstration of how music appeals to the soul of the animal (two and four-legged). They will give us the opportunity to digest and synthesize the information learned during the day.
     Lisa Spector is a concert pianist, a Julliard graduate, and canine music expert. She co-founded "Through a Dog's Ear" (a clinically tested musical method to relieve canine and feline anxiety) helping dogs/cats in animal shelters, rescue organizations, veterinary hospital's and homes worldwide.
     Joshua Leeds is a music producer, composer, educator and researcher specializing in psychoacoustics and bioacoustics - the study of how music and sound affect the human and non-human nervous system.

4:15 - 4:30
Conclude

CERTIFICATES OF ATTENDANCE WILL BE PROVIDED.

* Please Note:
While we love our four legged friends, we ask that participants not bring their animals. (With the exception of personal service animals and those appointed teams working with the conference will be allowed on site.) Thank you. If you have further questions, please contact Dr. Jean Larson at: larso095@umn.edu

RELATED EVENTS
If you are interested in the Speak! Conference, consider attending these additional programs!

BOOK SIGNING (FREE) Arrive before the "Through a Pet's Ear" concert to also experience: Jonathan Balcombe Book Signing and interview "What a Fish Knows"  Thursday, October 27th 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. University of Minnesota Coffman Memorial Union, #324 NO REGISTRATION! This is a FREE event...just show up! See you there! For more information: Listen to a recent INTERVIEW Fish Have Feelings, Too: The Inner Lives Of Our 'Underwater Cousins' - Minnesota Public Radio Check out the BOOK What a Fish Knows - New York Times Best Seller Interview facilitated by Tane Danger.  Tane Danger   is the co-creator of the civics-inspired improv show, The Theater of Public Policy, which brings issues of policy, politics, and science to life on stage through entirely unscripted comedy theater. He and his co-founder Brandon Boat have been described by national press as the “Gen-Y answer to Stewart and Colbert.”  In 2014 his work connecting audiences to public policy conversations through humor and theater won him a fellowship from the St. Paul-based Bush Foundation. He used that fellowship to earn a Master’s of Public Policy from the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs. His research  focused on how improv theater can help leaders better engage the public and how it can help anyone in public service be more collaborative, creative, and connected. Follow him on Twitter at @TaneDanger.

CONCERT

Image credit: Taborsky/shutterstock

Through a Pet's Ear: Music to improve animal health and behavior Thursday, October 27th, 2016, 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. University of Minnesota - Ted Mann Concert Hall

	FREE (Students with ID) $10.00 Advance Registration $15.00 at the door
	Package Both SPEAK! Conference and Through a Pet's Ear Live Piano Performance  • $160.00 Arboretum Members & Conference Affiliates  • $175.00 General registration                  WOW! Save an additional $10 off this conference+concert package! Use Coupon CodeSPECIAL at checkout.

Live Piano Performance Overview

Sound researcher, Joshua Leeds and Concert pianist, Lisa Spector are the co-founders of Through a Dog's Ear and Through a Cat's Ear, music clinically shown to relieve canine and feline anxiety. This special performance will highlight their bioacoustic arrangements of classical piano compositions designed to calm dogs and cats.

Following the demonstration, Spector will perform works of Chopin, Schumann, Debussy and Rachmaninoff.

Through a Dog's Ear and Through a Cat's Ear soundtracks are used in 100,000+ homes, shelters, and veterinary centers around the world. Since their soothing music affects both ends of the leash, they will also be discussing ways to improve your human soundscape that benefits 2-legged animals as well as 4-legged animals.