McALLEN — The simple goal behind Futuro RGV’s Festival of Facts Tuesday was to send Rio Grande Valley community members home with a little more statistics-based information about their community than they’d had when they arrived.
There was certainly a good deal of that information on hand, mostly focused on education and law enforcement.
Daniel King, a former longtime PSJA ISD superintendent and current Region 1 ESC Director, talked about enrollment levels in local schools. McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez talked about crime trends. Bigwigs from UTRGV and STC and private groups talked about what was going on in their wheelhouse.
Those talks by professionals in their respective fields were not, necessarily, unique. Many of them do it periodically, or their organizations put out information in press releases and through social media.
What was unique was the format.
A mixer gave attendees the opportunity to mingle with speakers before the presentations began. Speakers were urged to be concise, affording a wide variety of information in a relatively short amount of time.
What was also unique was the diversity of people the event attracted: community activists and businesspeople, and in particular politicians representing a variety of local and statewide offices.
“It was a pretty good cross-section,” Futuro RGV President Nedra Kinerk said.
There were a couple of dozen attendees, about what Futuro expected, although Kinerk speculated a Beto O’Rourke rally happening at the same time may have drawn a couple of prospective guests away.
Kinerk said informative events have been a staple of Futuro’s programming, although the diverse information on tap at the Festival of Facts is new and she hopes it will serve as a basis for upcoming elections in November.
“We’ve done a great many things, but we have not done this particular thing, although we have definitely done a lot of forums on various issues,” she said. “But this is the first time that we have put a number of issues together all in one format and tried to get a lot of answers to questions that affect our communities.”
Those answers are more important than ever before given a recent rise in skepticism and proliferation of disinformation, Kinerk said.
Studies have found Americans’ trust in scientists and experts has declined. Disinformation and hoaxes have become a central component in the nation’s discourse on politics and policy.
“I think we’ve got to really make an effort to put out facts that are based on research and what actually has happened, rather than so-called ‘alternate facts.’ That worries me,” Kinerk said.
Over the past couple of years Futuro has been working on expanding the reach of its information sessions.
In particular, it beefed up its multimedia outreach, recording forums and events and creating a library of recordings on its website.
The group’s Facebook Live broadcasts of political forums have proved particularly popular, and are sometimes the sole opportunity for candidates in those races to debate in a public, neutral setting. Those broadcasts frequently draw hundreds of comments.
“This is the 21st century, and we’ve got to think in those terms, because the 20th century is over and done. In fact, we’re a quarter of the way into the new century,” Kinerk said.
Videos of Tuesday’s seminars will ultimately be added to the group’s website as well.
“We want to make sure that people really understand what really is happening as told by the people who are actually doing it and have the correct information,” Kinerk said. “And these are things that I think they ought to be asking the candidates this fall for the elections, and I hope that this will help people to know some of the questions that they want to ask candidates in fall.”
Futuro RGV has another Festival of Facts slated for next Tuesday, focusing on business, demographics and civics.
The event is open to the public and will be held at the McAllen Public Library. Presentations will begin at 6 p.m. and run through 8 p.m.
