Research conference opens up possibilities for change … and Twitter
Michelle Moon from Bendigo attended the 2012 Australasian Research Management Conference (ARMS) held on the Gold Coast recently. As she explains in the following report, her first conference opened her eyes to the possibilities that go with change and the power of the Tweet.
It was all about the people I met, from experienced research administrators to ‘newbies’ like me. As this was the first ever conference I have been to, I was also interested in the behind the scenes organising of the ARMS conference. The organising committee is to be commended on an amazingly well organised and relevant event and I have also stored away a few of their ideas in case I need them one day.
The ‘Introduction to Research Management’ workshop on the first day, Wednesday, was an immensely useful session and I loved the opportunity to meet and talk to so many administrators, like me just starting in research. This session helped me discover ‘what is research’ and ‘what is my role’ as a research administrator. And yes, the breadth of experiences across the room was quite amazing, from new to research administrators to experienced researchers moving into administration.
On Thursday and Friday afternoons I followed the Technology for Collaboration streams. The Technology for Collaboration presentations had a problem-oriented agenda. They had identified a problem or opportunity and then focused on how to solve it with technology. Thursday’s mind blowing information came from the Square Kilometre Array session, an amazing collaboration between Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, with much more planned.
On Friday I listened to Michael Khor Khiam Aik from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) a rapidly advancing, research-intensive university in Singapore. Using eLearning, along with Imperial College London, NTU will open the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in 2013. I recently discovered, via Twitter, that NTU have made a massive jump ahead in the recently released World University Rankings.
I found some of the information about collaboration slightly overwhelming and often felt another language was being spoken, but there were ample opportunities to grab valuable snippets of information from each of the sessions I attended. Listen, understand and invest in the relationship may be the most important message for successful collaboration.
My most valuable ‘tool’ to help decipher the jargon was Twitter. @researchwhisper had been invited to officially tweet during the sessions to #ARMS2012. The people behind the tweet and blog were experienced RMIT research administrators Tseen Khoo and Jonathon O’Donnell. Their session ‘The Research Whisperer: Research Development and Social Media’ was one of the best attended sessions at the conference with standing room only.
Twitter can be a legitimate and useful communication tool for researchers, educators and administrators. Since the conference I have spent time familiarising myself with my Twitter account and now feel very comfortable putting out a tweet or two! If you are curious, it is worth investigating Twitter further. If you want a little help to demystify Twitter and blogging, give me a call and I can help you get started.
Perhaps the most interesting undercurrent that I identified at the 2012 conference is about change. Change happening within universities and change happening within research areas. A lot of these conversations are happening at The Conversation, according to The Conversation’s General Manager and ARMS2012 attendee Jack Rejtman. This theme will continue at next year’s ARMS 2013 Conference.
There is always change at the School of Rural Health, so maybe I can come up with an idea for a poster presentation… and if you hear Pam Harvey or other Bendigo staff whispering ‘One pomodoro, two pomodoro’ then they are deep into Bendigo’s ‘Shut up and write!’ session held every Friday morning in the cafe. For this idea, thank you to another Twitter devotee I ‘met’ at the conference; @thesiswhisperer.
– By Michelle Moon (Follow her on Twitter @michelleannmoon)
Visit ARMS website to download ARMS 2012 speaker presentations and recordings or look at the ARMS 2012 Facebook for photos taken during the conference.