Peter Barker Email & Phone Number

Linkedin seems to be full of people whose career trajectory was like something preordained.Not so for me. In my early 30s I’d been making TV documentaries for ten years, about everything from space science to U.S. politics and religion (plus a little smattering of UFO conspiracy programmes thrown in there, but I try to forget those ) I loved the work and assumed I’d be doing it until I retired.But six years ago a call from a university friend changed that entirely.Her medical research lab had received a public engagement grant and she wanted help creating some videos, so that patients and the public could understand more about their work.Embedded amongst the researchers over a period of several months, learning about their work and helping them to engage meaningfully with their community was hugely rewarding. I was hooked. And I also realised that there was a real need within the research community for professionals with creative storytelling experience to help them communicate effectively.That’s when Orinoco Communications was born. Since starting the company in 2016, I’ve been lucky enough to work with some incredibly talented researchers from all disciplines across STEM, the social sciences and humanities.Always with the same purpose: telling stories to communicate research in a fresh, engaging way. And in 2019 an exciting new chapter for Orinoco Communications began, when I moved with my family from London to Austin in Texas, and set up a US office over there. It’s hard to say this kind of thing without sounding a little bit too earnest, but it’s very humbling to work with people who dedicate their lives, day-in-day-out, to changing the world for the better. Whether that’s seeking cures for rare diseases, designing vaccines to end global pandemics, or learning more about what it means to be human. Ultimately, I just make videos and animations about other people’s amazing work. But I do strongly believe that if those discoveries and ideas aren’t properly communicated then they won’t achieve the impact they deserve.So I’m very proud of the role we play and I'm excited about what's to come!Expect my Linekdin feed to be full of posts about digital comms with a research focus, updates on what we’re up to at Orinoco Communications, and news about the latest episodes of the #ResearchCommsPodcast.www.orinococomms.com

Listed skills include Documentaries, Broadcast, Media Production, Television, and 17 others.

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  Company Owner

  Orinoco Communications

  Mar 2016 - Present - Deal, England, United Kingdom

  In my role as director of Orinoco Communications I oversee the creative, strategic and operational sides of the business.At Orinoco Communications our clients all hail from the world of research and innovation. We've partnered with various Wellcome Trust centres, the Francis Crick Institute, the British Academy, Royal Academy of Engineering, University of Texas. and Oxford and Cambridge Universities, to name a few!Much of my time is spent working closely with those clients to formulate the best way to tell their stories, share their research, and communicate their messages.That's the strategic side of things. My role as creative director lies in helping our in-house and freelance creative teams to design and produce videos, animations and other digital content that will execute on that strategy.When I'm not working directly on client projects much of my time is spent writing blog posts about topics associated with research communication, recording interviews for our Research Comms podcast, or generally engaging with people from the research and scicomm communities online and (once upon a time) in person.If you want to discuss your own research communication needs please feel free to get in touch with me at peter@orinococomms.com

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  Oxford University

  Modern History