Oxford University was once again the venue for the Programme when it hosted BRII’s assembly on 9 June 2009. Also attending, amongst others, were John King, CAIRO, Stuart McQuade, SLAP, Sunil Rodgers, IDMAPS, Anne-Sophie de Baets, Academic Social Networking and Mathew Jones, e-Admin of Teaching.
Sally Rumsey of BRII hosted the ‘stakeholder buy-in’ themed event and the morning was spent with each project giving a 15 minute presentation. Typically each presentation gave an overview of their respective projects, the problem being addressed by their project and how they approached the issue of stakeholder buy-in. Interestingly enough although all the projects had to deal with stakeholder buy-in from one perspective or another, their solutions were all different. However, as the issue of stakeholder buy-in is such a complex area (internal politics, appropriate communications etc.), a 15 minute presentation could only scratch the surface of what each project did.
After lunch we were treated to a talk by Susannah Wintersgill, Head of Internal Communications at Oxford University about her recent experiences in redeveloping the University website.
We then had a group activity based around synthesising different approaches to stakeholder buy-in. This was kind of a brainstorming activity and was very interesting in the way that the respective projects brought their own project experiences to the table.
It was also suggested that JISC/SSBR might be interested in publishing an account of stakeholder buy-in methods from the existing projects. This would be thematic and evidence work that was tried and tested.
After the Assembly, the BRII team had organised a tour of the Bodleian library. Due to travel arrangements, especially the tube strike that day, some participants were not able to attend although they had wanted to. I think this was a really nice touch, after all many of us had not been to Oxford before and this gave us the opportunity to have a quick look around to finish the day with.
In conclusion, I have to admit I was dubious about spending a day in discussion about stakeholder buy-in. I am glad to report my doubts were entirely unfounded. I believe the event was useful and interesting for all of the participants, based on the feedback I received during the day. I also think everyone was able to walk away with something of interest for their project (or future project) to try out as a benefit of attending the BRII Assembly.
Mitul Shukla (mitul@jisc-ssbr.net)
BRII will be uploading the presentations on their website and blog as soon as the PPTs have been sent by the participants along with pictures, notes and the guidelines/toolkit (name still to be decided!) in the near future.
Dr Cecilia Loureiro-Koechlin (Cecilia.Loureiro-Koechlin@ouls.ox.ac.uk)
Project website is: http://brii.ouls.ox.ac.uk/
Project blog is: http://brii-oxford.blogspot.com/
