Explore more #8: surviving homecoming

Are you developing an idea for an overseas expedition or fieldwork project and in need of expert guidance on your next steps?

Throughout the first half of 2025, the RGS Explore team will be hosting fortnightly lunchtime webinars, each on a specific topic. You’ll learn how to refine and launch a successful exploratory venture, whether that’s a challenging journey with a purpose, field research in a remote location, or anything in between.

In the eighth and final event in this series, we will discuss an often-overlooked but crucial component of any good expedition plan: closing the various loops of your project, ensuring a lasting legacy, and weathering the readjustments of coming home.

What you will learn

You will learn about:

• Post-expedition tasks and how to plan for them.
• Challenges and strategies for readjusting after an expedition.
• Support networks and resources for returning expedition members.

About the hosts

Tom Allen is the Society's Expeditions and Fieldwork Manager. He is an explorer, author, trail prospector and responsible travel advocate specialising in the Caucasus region, as well a past recipient of the Society Land Rover Bursary and a long-time bicycle traveller.

In addition to supporting our core audience of fieldwork and expeditions practitioners, Tom will be helping the Society to expand the Society’s support to many more people, from leading experts to the simply curious, who want to make the world a better place as they travel with purpose, develop geographical knowledge, and share what they learn.

Shane Winser is the Society’s Expeditions and Fieldwork Advisor, providing advice, information, and training to a wide range of scientific, educational, and adventurous expeditions. Together with colleagues, Shane curates the Society’s annual Explore weekend held each November.

Shane is a member of BSI’s technical panel for BS 8848, the British Standard that specifies operational requirements for organisers of a wide variety of overseas ventures including university and academic fieldwork, gap year experiences, adventure holidays, charity challenges and research expeditions.

She is a co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine, now in its third edition, and editor of the RGS Expedition Handbook.

About our guests

Kathryn Green has worked as an expedition doctor for the British Exploring Society in Kyrgyzstan and recently undertook a self-supported cycling expedition from Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan. She has just returned from the Livingstone 24 expedition to Zambia with the Virtual Doctors charity, where the team implemented snakebite and trauma training whilst developing virtual clinics that link Zambia to the UK.

Cameron Mackay is a Scottish environmental filmmaker and Celtic music producer who utilises his media storytelling work to forge new connections between audiences and the natural world, with a background encompassing documentary film production, geographical fieldwork, and leading expeditions in areas such as the Indian Himalaya and Greenland.

Booking information

• Advance booking for this event is required. In order to book you will need an account on our website. If you already have an account you will be prompted to log in when you click 'book now'. Please create an account if you do not have one yet (you do not need to be a member of the Society to create an account).

Attending online

• Joining instructions will be included in your confirmation email.

If you have any questions or require assistance with your booking, please email events@rgs.org