Higher Ed’s unique culture allows tech professionals to connect with one another and collaborate in ways that would be nearly impossible in a corporate environment. In an effort to strengthen these connections between university IT professionals in New England, Optimal Partners helped sponsor and organize the first event for the Higher Ed IT Professionals Meetup group on Thursday, May 25th. We’d like to thank everyone in attendance for helping make the meeting such a success.
The event focused on how IT professionals could bring innovation to their college or university through the use of emerging technologies, such as 3D printing, virtual and augmented reality. Joshua Wilson, former Associate CIO for Academic Technology at Brandeis University, lead the discussion and shared success stories from Brandeis’ multiple award-winning maker space, MakerLab. Although he was not able to join us in person, Ian Roy, co-founder of the MakerLab, was able to record his responses to a series of questions beforehand, allowing Wilson to perform a video interview.
After Wilson’s presentation, the Meetup group took a short recess to network and share stories “from the trenches.” It was great to be finally able to match the names of Meetup members with their faces. The turnout for the first meeting was quite diverse; we had IT professionals from several different institutions, the dean of the Ricciardi College of Business at Bridgewater, as well as two students in attendance. Everyone was quick to gather into groups and discuss their involvement in maker space-fueled innovation.
Once the Meetup reconvened, Wilson introduced everyone to the MakerLab Service Coordinator at Brandeis, Hazal Uzunkaya. Wilson and Uzunkaya took questions from the group and lead the discussion on effective strategies for cultivating innovation in Higher Ed through maker space technology for the remainder of the session.
All in all, we think the Meetup’s first meeting was a huge success! It wouldn’t have been possible without a few key members of the Meetup that helped organize and sponsor the event, including James Stoffel, Joshua Wilson, Ian Roy, and Hazal Uzunkaya. We’d also like to thank Showa Boston Institute for Language and Culture for inviting us onto their campus and allowing us to use their space.
If you live in New England and are interested in joining the next gathering, consider joining the Higher Ed IT Professional’s Meetup. It could be a fantastic networking and learning opportunity to meet other technology pros at colleges and universities in the area and share your expertise. We are also looking for feedback on the next event’s topic and location, so please feel free to reach out to us if you’re interested in presenting on a specific topic or if you would like to host a Meetup at your Higher Ed institution.
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