First time Westnet attendee,

We’d like to share some information with you on 3 regular agenda items that are included at Westnet meetings.  They are titled “What are you doing about?”, “5 minute madness”, and “Lightning talks”. As some of these items may require your participation, having this information ahead of time will allow you to gather info and share more meaningfully with the rest of the group.

“What are you doing about?”

This topic allows all members a chance to ask other institutions a question about a project, product, or process of interest to them.  This is an open forum for your question to be asked (by our moderator) of the greater group, and open style conversation to get answers in real time.  For example: “How is your transition to O365 going?” or “What are you doing about guest wireless?”.  We ask that you submit any “What are you doing about?” topics either at registration time or on the first day of the event.

“5 Minute Madness”

Each attending institution is given 3-5 minutes (depending on how many institutions are attending) to announce their top initiatives which are in progress, recently finished, or about to start.  The intent is “big picture” items as opposed to a list of minute details. For example: “We are about half done moving to a new ERP” or “We just finished migrating our databases to a new platform”. Each institution will have a single person deliver this list to the group, so if you are the only attendee, please try to gather this information ahead of time to represent your institution.  This is informal, delivered from your seat verbally, and no slides are necessary!

 “Lightning talks”

Intended as an ice breaker session, Lightning talks allow attendees to get to know each other better, professionally or on a personal level.  Participation is completely voluntary, but we heavily encourage new attendees to present.  Presentations are short (5 minutes or less), delivered by you at the front of the room on a topic of your choosing.  You may use slides, video, audio or other media if you wish, but none are required. Lightning talks are an informal, light-hearted and fun way for all to learn more about you.  Past topics have included stamp collecting, drones, converting lighting in an RV to LED, national park visits, children and grandchildren, and even how to move balances around on credit cards to achieve the best point rewards!