Showcase will offer approaches for addressing complex issues

Helping each other find ways to address complex issues that travel across traditional campus boundaries will be a primary focus of Showcase 2010.

In the past, Showcase has offered ideas on how to make improvements within individual units. But organizers say this has evolved over time and this year’s event — now in its 11^th year — will focus more on approaches that can work across campus, such as using technology tools to create partnerships and build relationships.

“Showcase is a demonstration of how people are dedicated to excellence, and at the same time looking for efficiencies,” says Maury Cotter, director of the Office of Quality Improvement. “Sometimes we think there’s a tradeoff between excellence and efficiency, but this is about both.”

Sponsored by the Office of Quality Improvement and the Office of Human Resource Development, the free event will offer about 50 exhibits, technology presentations and idea exchanges from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6, at the Memorial Union.

A panel discussion over lunch will feature Jeremi Suri, professor of history; Gregg Mitman, interim director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies; and moderator Frederica Freyberg of Wisconsin Public Television. They are expected to address such questions as what makes a problem complex, how to integrate research, teaching and service in solving them, and how solutions can be scaled and disseminated broadly for maximum impact.

The panel will start at 11:15 a.m.

Poster exhibits, open from 8-11 a.m., will demonstrate ideas and tools that people can adapt for use in their own departments or units, from offering audio tours of Memorial Union art exhibits through visitors’ cell phones to helping students and alumni build careers through online tools.

Other projects that will be highlighted are the Go Big Read initiative, the process of turning Camp Randall into a hockey rink, the ways Twitter is used on campus and how Administrative Process Redesign is addressing campus administrative challenges.

Also throughout the morning, a number of discussion sessions will address such topics as using the new online course guide to pick classes and learning best practices for relocating offices. Department chairs will also gather for a session in which they’ll each have an opportunity to share an idea or approach that worked to make their departments more efficient.

“We have fun encouraging people to steal ideas,” Cotter says, noting that the idea for Showcase came from Penn State University but has since been adopted by many other schools.

Provost Paul DeLuca will welcome attendees with remarks at 8:30 a.m. and again at lunch, while Darrell Bazzell, vice chancellor for administration, will close the morning session with a talk on “A Time for Us to Engage as a Campus Community.”

For more information or to register, visit http://www.quality.wisc.edu/showcase.htm.