facilitated discussion .pptVIP

Strategies for Planning Effective Scientific Workshops Amanda Staudt National Wildlife Federation Friday, April 13, 2007 Introductions and opening remarks Introductions: Who are you? What do you work on? Tell us about a memorable scientific workshop experience  positive or negative Opening remarks What is a scientific workshop? What makes scientific workshops challenging to plan? Managing expectations Everyone is busy! Outline: Setting clear objectives Crafting the agenda Practice activity Guidance to speakers and participants Advertising BREAK Seamless logistics Facilitating discussions Practice activity Follow up What are some topics of workshops that you would like to attend? Pick top 5 ideas for use during practice activities Setting clear objectives for the workshop Meeting some stated need Some common goals of workshops include sharing info among colleagues sharing info among different groups of experts e.g., cross disciplinary; science-policy examining a problem and looking for a solution scoping a new area/project Attainable Communicated to everyone at the outset Setting clear objectives for the workshop: Some examples 2. Understanding and Improving Forecasts of Rapid Changes in Hurricane Intensity 4. A National Integrated Drought Information System 9. Assimilating Ecological, Biological, and Geosciences Process Studies and other Data Sources into Climate Models 10. Intersection of the Carbon and Water Cycles 18. Space Weather Forecasting 19. Improving the Skill of Precipitation Forecasts A1. Developing a National Strategy for Seasonal-to-Interannual Forecasts A5. Oceanic Drivers for Seasonal-to-Decadal Climate Variability in the Mid- and High-Latitudes Crafting the agenda 1 How best to meet the objectives? Some different variants, which you can mix and match: Seminar style a long presentation followed by QA good for conveying background context, setting the stage Conference style 12-15 minute talks, followed by 1-3 minutes