Sustainability Training
- Details
- Published on Friday, 26 June 2020 02:55
Gateway Focus Week
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| Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), Austin, TX |
Looking to build a sustainability plan for your science gateway? Planning to write your next funding proposal?
Join us at the next Focus Week to create your starter sustainability toolkit!
Gateway Focus Week is an intensive week-long workshop designed for innovative research teams to work together on producing a strong sustainability plan. You’ll leave Focus Week with a clearer definition of your project's value, its audience, and its positioning in the competitive landscape along with tools you can use to continue as your project continues to mature. Take the time to step away from your desk and invest in your future!
Thanks to the generous support of NSF, we are able to offer this workshop with no registration fees for attendees. Attendees will only need to cover their own travel, lodging, and meal costs.
Focus Week 2024 will take place:
When: April 15-19, 2024
Where: Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), 10100 Burnet Rd, Austin, TX 78758
Apply via the Focus Week Workshop Application
The Focus Week application will close March 15, 2024.
Focus Week Agenda
Day 11:00 PM - 4:00 PM |
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1:00 PM |
Introductions Goals of Program |
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1:45 PM |
Napkin Drawing |
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3:00 PM |
Break (Break Coffee, Tea, & Snacks Provided) |
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3:15 PM |
Value Proposition |
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4:00 PM |
End of Day One |
Day 29:00 AM - 4:00 PM |
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9:00 AM |
Day Two Warm Up |
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9:15 AM |
Market Landscape |
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10:45 AM |
Break (Break Coffee, Tea, & Snacks Provided) |
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11:00 AM |
Competitive Assessment |
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12:30 PM |
Lunch |
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1:30 PM |
Audience & Stakeholders |
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2:00 PM |
Audience Segmentation Exercise & Discussion |
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3:30 PM |
Wrap Up |
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4:00 PM |
End of Day Two |
Day 39:00 AM - 4:00 PM |
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9:00 AM |
Day Three Warm Up |
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9:15 AM |
Sustainability/Revenue Overview |
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10:45 AM |
Break (Break Coffee, Tea, & Snacks Provided) |
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11:00 AM |
Target Setting & Measurement |
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12:30 PM |
Lunch (Lunch Provided) |
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1:30 PM |
Usability & User-Centered Design |
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3:30 PM |
Wrapping Up |
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4:00 PM |
End of Day Three |
Day 49:00 AM - 4:00 PM |
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9:00 AM |
Day Four Warm Up |
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9:15 AM |
Assessing Audience Information Needs |
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10:45 AM |
Break (Break Coffee, Tea, & Snacks Provided) |
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11:00 AM |
Methods for Gathering Info on Your Audience(s) |
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12:00 PM |
Lunch (Lunch Provided) |
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1:00 PM |
Interview training |
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2:30 PM |
Break (Break Coffee, Tea, & Snacks Provided) |
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3:00 PM |
Next Steps: Finding Interviewees; Analyzing Findings |
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4:00 PM |
End of Day Four |
Day 59:00 AM - 1:00 PM |
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9:00 AM |
Welcome to the Last Day |
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9:15 AM |
Metrics Case Study: nanoHUB |
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10:15 AM |
Break |
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10:30 AM |
Pitches |
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12:00 PM |
Wrap-up Survey/Discussion & Lunch (Lunch Provided) |
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1:00 PM |
End of Day Five |
Plan your travel to TACC
TACC Address:
Texas Advanced Computing Center
Advanced Computing Building (ACB)
J.J. Pickle Research Campus, Building 205
10100 Burnet Rd (R8700)
Austin, TX 78758
Hotel:
Lone Star Court, by Valencia Hotel Group
10901 Domain Drive
Austin, Texas 78758
Phone: 512.814.2625
Reservations: 855.596.3398
Airport: Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) -- 17 miles away from TACC
Transportation:
- Ride share services are recommended if you chose not to drive.
General Logistics:
- Food: Light refreshments will be served through out the week with lunches provided Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
What will you learn?
Focus Week is a five-day program that walks teams through a sustainability toolkit and wraps up with a "Pitch Day" focused on each participating team delivering a presentation encompassing their sustainability planning done so far.
You and your team will work through the following activities during Focus Week:
- Napkin Drawing
- Learn how to effectively communicate your project.
- Understanding Your Audiences & Key Stakeholders
- Identify who cares about your project, and potential new user groups.
- Environment: Mapping the Landscape
- Whether you started in 1995 or 2015, it doesn't take long for new competitors to emerge. Spend time researching and mapping out your known and new competition.
- Marketing Tactics & Tools
- Learn how to communicate your project's value to your audiences with selective marketing through tools like social media, newsletters, outreach at booths, and conference presentations.
- Goal Setting
- Think about the big picture ideas. Learn how you can set the right goals for the right reasons, and learn how you can measure your success.
- Value Proposition
- Why should someone be interested in your project? Build a concise value statement that will inform your audience and retain their interest vs. hitting the back button.
- Budgeting
- You have goals to expand your gateway or bring on new team members. Discover how you can forecast a budget that will get you the right resources without breaking the bank.
- Market Development
- Explore the possible customer groups and subgroups that will find value out of your project other than the original audience your project is intended to serve.
Hear about the Focus Workshop from past attendees
Instructors
Sustainability trainings are taught by our lead instructors, Juliana Casavan and Nancy Maron.
Juliana Casavan is a program designer and facilitator and teaches others how to build and implement strategies for success.
Currently, she is a program manager for MatchBOX Coworking Studio, the leading coworking space in Greater Lafayette, Indiana, where she coaches local startups and entrepreneurs through strategic planning and product development.
Prior to joining MatchBOX, Juliana was a founding member of the Purdue Foundry, an internationally recognized leader in university startups and technology transfer. During her time, she created Firestarter, the premier startup workshop of Purdue University, leading over 500 teams of researchers and students through the ideation process.
Nancy Maron is founder and principal of BlueSky to BluePrint, a strategic research and consulting organization. She is the author of several research reports and guides on business strategy and sustainability including A Guide to the Best Revenue Models and Funding Sources for your Digital Resources (2014), Sustaining the Digital Humanities: Host Institution Support Beyond the Start-up Phase (June 2014) and many case studies of sustainable initiatives. She created and regularly leads workshops in sustainability and business strategy, including the Sustaining Digital Resources course.