Course organiser:Kathryn Ell & Bob Ryburn
3 Oct:
John Vargo on 'Resilient Organisations for a resilient society': Dr Vargo is co-leader of the Resilient Organisations Research Programme, Dept. of Accounting and Information of the University of Canterbury.
Organisational resilience, almost unheard of prior to the mid-2000s, is about surviving a crisis and thriving in a world of uncertainty. The Resilient Organisations Research Programme at the University of Canterbury has been working on this innovative concept since 2004. John will describe organisational resilience, why it is important and some of the outcomes, especially following the Christchurch earthquake sequence of 2010-11.
10 Oct:
Paul Millar on 'Preserving Our Stories: The UC CEISMIC Canterbury Earthquake Digital Archive.' Associate Professor Paul Millar is Head of the School of Humanities, University of Canterbury. Following the 22 February Canterbury earthquake, Paul wondered how a Professor of English Literature could help his community. The setting up of the ‘9/11 Digital Archive (which documented the impact of the 9/11 attacks on the US) provided the model which resulted in an archive of stories, images and media about the Canterbury earthquakes. Two years on, the UC CEISMIC archive is already one of the most significant projects of its kind. In this session Paul talks about its development, achievements, and his plans for the future.
17 Oct:
Andrew West on 'Productivity opportunities in agriculture': Dr Andrew West is the Vice-chancellor of Lincoln University.
He will explore opportunities and threats facing New Zealand agriculture and suggest how innovative education & training and research & development may contribute to a positive future for this sector.
24 Oct:
Judith Tatom on 'Y.E.S. – The Young Enterprise Scheme – What is it ?': Judith is the coordinator of the Young Enterprise Scheme, CORE Education Ltd. This competitive scheme invites secondary school students to design an innovation, arrange its manufacture and its marketing. The session will describe how the scheme operates, explain why it is run, its important events and how you can become involved. The speaker hopes to have one or two student participants to give first -hand experiences.
31 Oct:
Stephen Hampson on 'Powerhouse - an innovation facilitator': Dr Hampson is the managing partner of Powerhouse, a venture capital partnership sponsored by Canterbury Development Corporation. It commercialises innovative ventures from Universities and from Crown Research. It harnesses business concepts & ideas which in many cases have come from tertiary research facilities without commercial experience. As we will hear it has had a number of interesting and varied successes.