On a glorious afternoon, a group of us were fortunate to visit the IBM site in Dublin. We started our visit in the IBM Innovation Centre, hearing form our host Noel Crawford about the history of the site, and how it has developed from a manufacturing facility to the technology campus it is today.
This was an interactive workshop in two parts, with the first featuring "How to get noticed" and the second including a mock interview with journalist Adam Smith.
As an example of how to get noticed, a video of a new pan based on aerodynamic principles was shown, which originated from The University of Oxford. This was a good example of how video is increasingly used to promote technologies and engage audiences.
Tom Flanagan, RTTP, Director, DIT Hothouse, Dublin Institute of Technology, chaired a fascinating discussion of the difference in processes for resolving disputes using mediation, arbitration and court proceedings. The panel included The Honourable Mr Justice Peter Kelly, Judge of the Court of Appeal in Ireland, formerly Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court in Ireland; Judith Schallnau, Lawyer, IP Disputes Management Section, WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre; David Perkins, Arbitrator / Mediator for WIPO and other international arbitration bodies.
Sometimes it is good to go back to basics. In the conference’s opening plenary David Bott challenged some fundamental assumptions about how linear the relationship is between the type of world class science for which the UK is rightly applauded and the derivation of innovative products and services from such innovation – an area where he believes the evidence for our world class standing is perhaps less compelling.
Although institutional staff profiles and social media make it possible to make contact with people you’ve never met, face-to-face networking is still absolutely essential: if a person can put a face to a name your request is more likely to be passed on to the right person or responded to quickly.
Some people love networking, but other people would rather hide in a bathroom than drink coffee with strangers. So using the unscientific approach of Google, office anecdotes and personal experience, I’ve generated these top tips:
I attended my first PraxisUnico Conference at Southampton in 2012, after joining Inteum Company the year before. I’ve attended the conference every year since then, as it has proven to be an invaluable resource for me, both personally and professionally.
How long have you been involved with the PraxisUnico Conference? My first involvement with what was then the Unico conference was in 2008 (Praxis and Unico merged in 2011). I was working at Aston University at the time and when the conference came to Birmingham with Aston acting as host university I got involved in co-ordinating a number of conference sessions. I had been attending Unico conferences for many years before that but this was the first time I was involved in organising one.