Tips & Tricks for Hosting Academic Events​

[Fallon_Ranger]

Before the Event​

1. Go onsite and visit existing contacts at the university and discover active users of NI platform in partnership with the guidance of an NI channel manager of what software use already exists onsite ​
2. Collaborate with an onsite sponsor who can reserve a room at the university​
3. Connect the academic sponsor to the software administrator to run a license report of active usersto invite that email list to the invite ​
4. NI can provide the LabVIEW Courseware for Academia. specifically developed to support educatorson teaching NI LabVIEW. ​
5. Relevance in the market is essential. Inviting an engineer from a local company who’s team/company is in need of sharp talent familiar with LabVIEW grows partnerships with industry and solidifies our value-add by connecting them with local talent pipeline. What an opportunity to be asked to share career experience with college students.
6. Prompts to give them​:

• Share a bit about your company and current responsibilities ​
• What role does test and measurement play at ___, and why is it important?​
• What kinds of roles currently use LabVIEW and how do they contribute to the success ofthe company?​

During the Event​

1. Open the event with energy to set the tone and why these skills are important in the market, whythey should want to use them in future, add them to their resume and LinkedIn profiles​
2. Highlight the whiteboard analogy of programming graphically the way you think with arrows andicons vs text-based ​
3. Ask open-ended questions to break the ice​

• What majors do we have here today?​
• What kind of experience have you already with LabVIEW?​
• What about real-time control loops or even FPGA?​

1. Summarize what will be covered in the hands-on to set expectations.​
2. Provide quick shortcuts, / hot keys especially the ctl E “Split Window” ​
3. Move around the room to ensure progress among the groups. People don’t generally ask for help until they’ve spent quite a bit of time stuck. Asking, “what’s happening here?” helps to get a quick understanding of where they’re at​
4. At the end of each exercise have the attendees share "ah-ha" moments during event​
5. Talk through each example instead of quickly moving through it​
6. At end of event share date of next event with attendees so they put it on their calendars​
7. Don't forget to take pictures​ and post topics, takeaways, attendees and pictures on LinkedIn.

    

After the Event​

1. Send Thank you email with follow up content and date of next event​.

General Academic Considerations​

1. Summer is a good time to connect with faculty and gain an onsite sponsor for follow up events in the fall who can help with parking instructions, room reservations and getting invites out​
2. A huge value add of these events is bringing cross-functional faculty together the normally doesn'tinteract ​
3. Fall is a good time to engage with students, free pizza will help drive attendance. Good to work with Partners to sponsor the pizza.