Dippy is one of the most iconic specimens in our entire collection.
And Dippy has been delighting visitors here in London for well over 100 years.
But we wanted visitors from outside London to be inspired by Dippy,
and that's why we launched our most ambitious national programme ever.
The Garfield Weston Foundation has been supporting charities since 1958 and since then has made donations of over £1.2 billion.
Our Trustees supported Dippy on Tour to inspire people across the country to rediscover our natural world.
We are delighted that the impact of Dippy has been so positive across the country and has been seen by so many people.
Dippy has been to eight venues across the UK, and in each location the teams there have worked to bring together
the local collections, the local wildlife, and to work with local partners to inspire people in their local communities.
This has been as monumental collaboration with teams across the Natural History Museum and our partners.
And this programme has smashed all expectations.
Dippy has now inspired over five million people.
This is one of the happiest days of my professional life.
It is just such a brilliant feeling.
It's been great working with the Natural History Museum for the last two and a half years.
The last fortnight working with the team, we've learnt such a lot.
I'm just very proud that we've actually managed to do it.
The whole city of Birmingham has really got behind Dippy, so we've had many partners.
For example, the Retail Birmingham Improvement District
created a trail of 10 topiary dinosaurs to really kind of join in on the fun.
And we've done learning activities within Selfridges,
had Cadbury World get on board creating a large chocolate dinosaur egg.
And Paradise Birmingham, a development site just across from us, have sponsored the exhibition as well.
Seeing pictures of kids coming through on social media out with their little bug catchers that we're selling downstairs in the shop,
actually out there exploring nature, that's what the whole thing is about.
They've come in, seen Dippy, been inspired to go out and explore, and they're out there doing it.
Having Dippy here really gave us a chance to spread our reach.
So we had visitors coming here from various other parts of Scotland,
from the likes of Aberdeen, from Elgin, and the more local ones from Paisley and Lanarkshire.
So I think it was the scale of Dippy, and the fact that he bought people in from so far away,
that gave us a real chance to put Kelvingrove all over the Scottish map, if you like.
The important thing for the Great North Museum is we have a 'one team' ethos
and, actually, this project touched our teams at every level.
Because of that, we get that shared sense of pride in welcoming Dippy here.
It's really pulled the team together, we've had a lot of fun with him and we're excited by people's reactions to him.
The most common response is they come in the front door, and they go, 'Wow!'
Because he's so big and he takes up so much space and you can see all of him at once,
and it is as you come into the museum.
And I really do think that the awe and wonder on not just children's faces
when they see him is one of the main things.
The best thing about having Dippy in Rochdale
was the fact that Dippy came to Rochdale, one of the most disadvantaged boroughs in England,
and it really has helped inspire those communities who would never have dreamt of having this experience.
We had a roadshow that went to schools and community groups.
Whilst Dippy was here, we had learning resources which were able to be used in school and out of school, and during the visit.
And you just had to see the effect when families and schoolchildren and young people came to the exhibition,
visited Dippy and interacted with all the interactives. There's no doubt that in there, there's some scientists of the future.
I'll miss Dippy because he feels like a friend. He feels like he belongs in this space.
And I'll miss the interaction of people just coming in, that sense of excitement, the buzz in the queue. I just love all of that.
And our hope is that there will be long-term benefits from having had Dippy here,
and that although Dippy will have gone, lots of the benefits will remain.
I'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who's made this possible.
First of all, the Garfield Weston Foundation, Dell EMC and Williams & Hill.
A huge thank you each of those amazing venues.
And most importantly, a huge thank you to everyone who's come to see Dippy.
Dippy has inspired people for so long.
I really hope this will be a moment when we can work together, use this as a building block
to help build a world in which both people and planet can thrive.