Pre conference sessions

IBM, Conwy 1, Level C2 

Smarter education with IBM for HE/FE

Please join IBM and university colleagues to discuss the key challenges facing HE today. We will be exploring the opportunities available to us to help revolutionise our great educational institutions.

• Storage and Research Excellence
• Exceptional Student Experience

• Institutional Optimisation 

Storage and Research Excellence:
At IBM we recognise the challenges that have been placed upon the research community. In our conversations with Research institutions we are constantly challenged to lend advice around the exponential growth of data whilst also trying to work within and towards the EPSRC policy framework for Research Data.

Our modular framework for Research Storage Excellence provides institutions with cohesive solutions that look to improve allocation of resources to research projects, improve student and faculty research experience, increase the value of university research portfolio and strengthen grant proposals.

The University of Bristol will be talking through their approach when trying to work within the EPSRC framework.

Institutional Optimisation – the pathway to institutional transformation 
Institutional optimisation is at the heart of IBM's focus for 2012. IBM have a wealth of expertise in the implementation of scalable infrastructures and cloud foundations.

IBM recognises that to improve the operational efficiencies within HE institutions a blended approach to the delivery of services is required. Through our extensive Hardware, Middleware and services portfolio, we are able create environments which are bespoke to our customer’s needs, supporting them on the road to transformation.

Hear from Middlesex University how taking a different approach to the delivery of services has greatly impacted the learner environment and student experience.

Exceptional Student Experience
IBM has looked at emerging technologies that can help strengthen the exceptional student experience. We have created a framework from which institutions can enhance and support the future demands of learning within the UK. Our framework allows institutes to be instrumented, interconnected and intelligent when interacting and caring for its students.

One element is focused on the use of predictive analytics and next generating reporting, which can provide great insight into individual learners but also into the institutes brand sentiment. This enables each institute to be proactive in its approach when striving for a smarter, more efficient and successful education experience for all.

Hear how Cardiff University’s exceptional web experience has impacted learners, Deloitte in Partnership IBM will discuss the full vision.

To register for any of these 3 discussions, please click here. 

LogMeIn, Conwy 2, Level C2

Devices and platforms continue to evolve, placing increasing pressure on the help desk to provide support for students, staff and faculty.  Leading help desks are implementing solutions that help streamline the support process, resolve problems quickly, and keep end-users up-and-running and satisfied. 

Join your peers and LogMeIn in this pre-conference roundtable to discuss current trends in the campus help desk and tools that can keep your staff, students, and technicians happy.

14^th March 2012

11 am – 12 noon

To book your place on this session, please email Allyson Pelletier

Meru Networks, Caerphilly, Level C2
The Student Wireless Experience:  ensuring student retention through the provision of a quality and secure wireless service (with the minimum of IT dept headaches!)

1015-1100     1^st session
1115-1200     2^nd session
1215-1300     3^rd session

Paying students now place higher expectations on universities and the services they provide.  Student satisfaction ensures they remain on their courses, and therefore higher revenue for universities.  As more and more mobile devices proliferate, students expect wireless to be a utility they can find and access everywhere easily, with the required performance they came to experience in school, college or at home.  As university IT departments will know, supporting hundreds of users in libraries, lecture theatres and the various demands students place on wifi in the evenings, can often be a constant challenge.

Meru Networks recognised these challenges were imminent in the wireless market before even designing a product, and have been chosen by over 1000 education customers in the UK & Ireland.

Focusing on the student experience, the sessions will cover the RF and technical implications of lots of mobile devices on wireless networks, performance issues, coverage issues and how to quickly set up secure and monitored 802.1x authentication for student devices with the minimum of input from IT teams.

A live demo will put into practice the concepts covered in the session.

Meru Networks will be providing a free of charge Mother’s Day Card sending service, where we will have a selection of paid for and stamped Mother’s day cards for all those delegates who might have forgotten to purchase them, and we’ll even send them for you.

To book your place on one of these session, please email Mark Howell

OCLC Denbigh 1, Level C2
Transformational not operational − the future of HE library technology

In this session, OCLC discusses the opportunities and challenges that today’s web connected world presents to academic libraries.  OCLC will also present the findings of Libraries at Webscale, a new study exploring the ways in which the web is impacting information seeking.  The meeting will discuss the results of this report in the context of the UK higher education landscape and how shared data, tools and services can help you leverage collective innovation and transform many users’ educational and learning lives.  In addition, you will learn how new approaches to technology and partnerships are being combined in the library community to enhance resource provision and better serve the unique needs of individual scholars and students.

To register for this session please go to www.oclc.org/info/ucisa

Tribal Denbigh 2 Level C2
Course and Module Data Challenges in higher education

Tribal, supplier of the UK’s market leading Student and Course Management System SITS:Vision and UCISA 2012 sponsor would like to invite you to a pre-conference session to demonstrate how we can help Institutions face increasing demands for accurate course and module data.

Course and module data collection and management has always been a challenge within the sector, however the spotlight has recently moved towards the external view of this data with the introduction of the new KIS and HEAR requirements and more recently the XCRI-CAP.

Come along and see how Tribal can help your Institution manage and control these demands through the use of core system tools. We will demonstrate how the tools will allow an Institution to implement a fully managed and automation workflow for course and module approval as well provide the ability to push and pull any data in and out of SITS:Vision to support the process.

To book a place at one of our sessions please contact the Marketing team stating which time you wish to attend (10:00 or 11:30).