Jana Makar1
1New Zealand eScience Infrastructure (NeSI), Auckland, New Zealand
Situation:
Within Australasia’s eResearch sector, there is a large community of practice for science and technology communicators and outreach practitioners. Last year an idea was pitched to use this conference as an annual meetup and gathering opportunity. That initial session attracted attendees from a range of research institutions and projects, and all indicated support to make it an annual meetup.
Task:
The aim of this session is to provide an opportunity for participants to learn from each other, amplify shared stories, welcome new community members, and strengthen existing networks, all in the area of eResearch communications and outreach.
Action
Following an ‘unconference’ style, a brainstorming exercise will be used to crowdsource some key topics of discussion (depending on the number of participants, either 1-2 topics for a full group discussion, or 3-4 topics for small group breakouts). Guiding questions for the brainstorm will include:
Sharing – What is something ‘new’ you’ve tried this year? (new comms tool, new outreach approach)
Learning – What is something you’d like to learn more about or learn to do better?
Exploring – What opportunity(ies) do you see for collaboration or knowledge-sharing in the communications and outreach space?
Connecting – Are there particular community members or organisations you’d like to better connect with or learn more about?
Result:
Ultimately, this session will better connect the members of this community of practice, support knowledge-sharing between organisations, and potentially open new doors for eResearch communications collaboration.
Biography:
Based at the University of Auckland, Jana Makar coordinates a range of engagement initiatives and external communications for New Zealand eScience Infrastructure (NeSI). Prior to joining NeSI, Jana worked as a communications professional for multiple organisations in Canada’s cyberinfrastructure sector, including Cybera (provincial research & education network), WestGrid (regional HPC consortium), and Compute Canada (national HPC platform). She has a degree in Communications from the University of Calgary and spent the early part of her career working as a journalist for weekly and daily newspapers in Western Canada.