On conferences

I’ve just spent a fantastic two days at the 2019 AUA Conference. Here’s some of my highlights, and my thoughts about why it’s important to make time to tend your professional development.

The AUA is the Association of University Administrators – a body of which I’m a Fellow, having been a member and been involved since the late 1990’s. (I’m currently programme lead for its rather excellent Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Administration, Management and Leadership.)  It runs – amongst many other things – an annual conference, focused on professional development, and a very excellent conference it is too. There’s a mixture of plenary session and workshops; I’ll focus on the workshops I attended.

Sketch-noting: If you’re on Twitter you may have seen @Katrina_Swanton tweet her fantastic sketch-notes of workshops and conferences she has attended. Sketch-noting is a method of taking notes using pictures as well as words. As well as being interesting to see afterwards, they work well as a learning tool. Dual-coding is the thing here: by drawing pictures as well as writing words, we will better remember the material. And Katrina ran a great session, giving us the confidence to develop our skills and then to practice on a couple of TED talks. You don’t need to be an artist to sketch-note, you just need to be open to a new way to take in information. You can see below my first go, at a later session.

Defining the future profession: A session I co-presented with Susannah Marsden, of City, University of London. I’ll blog about this another time. Sufficient for now to say that the session seemed to go well, and people confronted the eternal question. With respect to trivial pursuits, is it pie or cheese?

Digital transformations: Fola Ikpehai of SUMS Consulting led a lively session focusing on digital transformation. Fola is a really engaging presenter, and her approach – rightly – focused on the organisational., process and cultural issues necessary to succeed in any digital transformation project. Its always interesting to hear another’s approach on a familiar topic: Fola’s experience in digital transformations in the museums sector meant that she had a great perspective on how to think like a customer, and how to embed digital thinking within an organisation.

The Changing University: A tour de force from @mike_rat which took us on a historical journey to see how universities have changed over time, adapting to the different demands that society places on them. From first foundations at Oxford, through to the abolition of the binary divide, Mike shared some fascinating images and created a narrative of quirky adaptability. Plus some great facts, which you’ll have to hear Mike talk to find out more about. For instance, why Oxford MAs had to swear an oath not to teach in Stamford; why elevenses were banned at an English University; and why freedom of speech is so strong a thread in the US university sector. A really fantastic session, plus, the chance to try out sketch-noting in the wild. What do you think?

A sketch-note, by me, of the great session by @mike_rat 

All of the sessions, in different ways, gave me cause to reflect on my own practice, and to rethink the contexts within which I work. I learnt about approaches and techniques which will help me to solve real problems in my work; I found out about good practice in many university activities. And, as always, I met up with old friends and made plenty of new ones. UK universities are fortunate in the calibre of people working within their professional services. The sector is fortunate to have the AUA.

Two days well spent, I’d say. Why not join me next year at the AUA conference in Nottingham?