As part of our Belmont Forum synthesis workshop, we sang a song at the end of each day. At the end of the first day after we had listened to the descriptions of diverse and fascinating projects, it was quite apparent that we were dealing with real research stars. This led to the adaptation of the 1999 song "All Star" (Music video) by the rock band Smash Mouth. Heath Kelsey and Martin LeTissier, my fellow workshop facilitators, were good sports about the disparaging lyrics attributed to them. The lyrics to the adapted version of All Star by Smashmouth Dennison were the following:

All Star
10 December 2016

Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me
Heath ain't the sharpest tool in the shed
Martin was looking kind of dumb with his finger and his thumb
In the shape of an "L" on his forehead.

Hey now, you're an all-star, get your game on, go play
Hey now, you're a rock star, get the show on, get paid
And all that glitters is gold
Only shooting stars break the mold.

Co-design's a cool place and they say it gets better
You're predicting stuff now, and you can get better
But the stakeholders beg to differ
Judging by the hole in the satellite picture
The ice we skate is getting pretty thin
The water's getting warm so you might as well swim
My world's on fire, how about yours?
That's the way I like it and I never get bored.

Hey now, you're an all-star, get your game on, go play
Hey now, you're a rock star, get the show on, get paid
And all that glitters is gold
Only shooting stars break the mold.

After our second day, I adapted a song from Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" (music video). Otis Redding wrote his iconic song in 1967 while sitting on a houseboat in Sausalito, California floating on San Francisco Bay. Our workshop was only a few blocks from San Francisco Bay, and we were crammed into a small conference room for two full days, so this seemed to be the appropriate song to adapt for our purposes. The following song was performed by the Belmont Forum Chorus:

(Sittin' In) This Conference Room
11 December 2016

Sittin' in this conference room
I'll be sittin' when the evening comes
Watching the ideas roll in
Then I watch them roll away again, yeah
I'm sittin' in this conference room
Watchin' the ideas roll away, ooh
I'm just sittin' in this conference room
Wastin' time . . .

I left my home in wherever
Headed for the Frisco Bay
Cuz I've had nothing to live for
But it looks like Belmont Forum's gonna save the day

So I'm just gon' sit in this conference room
Watchin' the ideas roll away, ooh
I'm sittin' in this conference room
Wastin' time . . .

Looks like somethin's gotta change
Everything can't remain the same
We can do what stakeholders want us to do
So I guess we can change the world, listen

Sittin' here restin' my bones
But this restlessness won't leave me alone, listen
Many thousands of miles I roam
Just to make this room my own, now

I'm just gon' sit in this conference room
Watchin' the ideas roll away, ooh
Sittin' in this conference room
Wastin' time . . .

I concluded the workshop by reading one of my favorite quotes by Margaret Mead which seemed pertinent to the small groups of researchers working on coastal vulnerability and freshwater security projects around the globe, addressing the Belmont Challenge:

"Never doubt that small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."