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FIVE ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS PARTNERED WITH A TECHNICAL PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION TO DELIVER A SEMINAR CONNECTING STUDENTS WITH ENTREPRENEURIAL AND INNOVATIVE ALUMNI AND RESOURCES.
Last year, IEEE and the University of Central Florida (UCF) collaborated to produce a seminar on technological innovation and entrepreneurship for the benefit of UCF students and community members. Planning the event involved many meetings by a team consisting of an IEEE client services manager and several university librarians. Over a period of three months, the team recruited a panel of experts and local entrepreneurs, structured the agenda and activities to promote interaction, coordinated outreach to campus organizations, and laid out the details and particulars of running the event. This article describes the process and challenges of planning and presenting the seminar and the lessons learned from participating in it.
The Seminar Organizers
IEEE is a technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. IEEE stays responsive to its customers' needs through its client services managers (CSMs), information professionals who are tasked with building and sustaining IEEE's relationships with customers and increasing their awareness of online products and services. Each CSM serves as a bridge between the customer and IEEE to answer questions, discuss issues, handle requests, and provide onsite training, including customized workshops.
One such workshop was the result of an IEEE partnership with engineering librarians from Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania. The workshop, titled "Innovation and Entrepreneurship Panel," took place in September 2016 and generated positive comments about the entrepreneurship-centered issues raised by the panelists. A poster for an early version of this workshop was presented at the Special Libraries Association's 2017 Annual Conference (see Figure 1).
The success of the September 2016 workshop provided a strong impetus for IEEE to host similar events with other universities. IEEE's CSM for Florida, Ruth Wolfish, approached UCF about hosting such an event. This led to a collabora- tion to develop an updated version of the workshop, titled "UCF IEEE Innovation and Entrepreneurship Seminar," which took place in November 2017.
The University of Central Florida proved an ideal institution to partner with IEEE to develop a seminar. Located in Orlando, Florida, UCF is a growing metropolitan research university with more than 66,000 students. Founded in 1963 as...