Showcase planned for March 27

Unlocking creativity and sharing innovative ideas on ways to make the campus work more effectively are at the center of Showcase 2007 on Tuesday, March 27, at the Memorial Union.

The eighth annual idea-sharing event highlights how units from across the campus have successfully collaborated to improve work processes, learning environments and campus climate.

“People draw inspiration and some great ideas from Showcase each year that they can borrow and apply to improving their own work,” says Maury Cotter, director of the Office of Quality Improvement. “Showcase is a seed bed for innovation and a way of showing what’s possible.”

Sponsored by the Office of Quality Improvement and the Office of Human Resource Development, the free event this year offers nearly 60 poster exhibits, technology demonstrations and keynote presentations from 8 a.m.-1 p.m.

The exhibits run the gamut from showing how the new campus online map was created and how it can be used to new tools for grant management to how the UW–Madison Police planned for the 911 emergency center to managing graduate student applications in the Department of Mathematics.

Also profiled are a number of campuswide efforts, including the Automated Travel System Project, the Wisconsin Idea Project and UW–Madison’s upcoming reaccreditation.

Showcase 2007 will also feature a number of speakers and sessions aimed at providing participants with tips, techniques and hands-on demonstrations. Throughout the morning a number of sessions will discuss topics such as using strategic plans to monitor large grants, how to manage improvement projects and a roundtable discussion among department chairs.

Chancellor John D. Wiley will make opening remarks at the session at 8:30 a.m. At 10:15 a.m. Vice Chancellor for Administration Darrell Bazzell will speak on “Celebrating and Sharing our Success,” followed at 10:45 a.m. by Provost Patrick Farrell, who will discuss “Collaboration and Our Future.”

From 11-11:45 a.m. two speakers – Barbara McFadden Allen, director of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation and David Pilsbury, chief executive of the Worldwide Universities Network – will discuss how to build networks of cooperation in higher education.

And futurist David Zach will deliver a luncheon talk titled “Trends and Traditions Shaping Higher Education: Where Does UW–Madison Go from Here?”

For early risers, Showcase will again offer early-bird sessions from 7:30-8 a.m. that provide participants with tips on how to get the most out of the day’s events at Showcase.