UIDP Project Summit 2016
Members Roll Up Their Sleeves to Produce Solutions
Ask Paul Reeder at Ohio State University why he attends UIDP Project Summits, and he’ll tell you he’s there to work. “I feel that there is a sense of responsibility in all who attend the project summits, a responsibility to provide direction for the future of university-industry interactions and relationship building,” says Reeder. “Without question, I return from each summit I attend with insights that are critical to the success of corporate engagement at my university.”
I volunteered to co-lead the Effective U-I Engagement Practices project group with the hope that at the end of the project, I might have the one or two points that bridge the gap to my prospective corporate partners. However, at the UIDP Tucson Summit, I walked away with five ‘ah ha’ moments that have made this project already valuable to my daily work. I was super excited by this summit.
— Paul Reeder, Ohio State University
On January 21 – 22, 2016 UIDP member representatives spent two productive days on campus at the University of Arizona, at the 2016 UIDP Project Summit. Participants at these meetings are people who are especially dedicated to bringing the best practices of university-industry collaboration to their own institutions. This year’s agenda offered a full schedule of in-person working group meetings that gave member representatives the opportunity to engage with each other and advance UIDP Project objectives.
“The success of this Summit proves, once again, that we are an organization of problem solvers,” said Tony Boccanfuso, President of UIDP. “By working together at this Summit, we tackled some of the most challenging issues impacting U-I relations, through creative—and sometimes disruptive—problem-solving. By the end of the Summit, we had produced practical resources to help our members in the work they do.”
The high-quality networking at UIDP Project Summits enhances the high-quality outcomes of the project groups. As Reeder, noted, “attending the UIDP Project Summits allow members to have much more interactive conversations with industry colleagues, and having a targeted subject matter, the time to explore the topic nuances and the overarching trust exhibited between UIDP members provides the perfect environment for progress.”
If you are interested in being involved in a UIDP Project, email us at info@uidp.net. UIDP Member Representatives can log into the Member’s Only Area to see more details in the Member News section about each working group that met during the Project Summit.
