UW-MANIAC Breakfast Series: "Mini" Big Learning on April 7th!

The next MANIAC Breakfast series: "Mini" Big Learning will be on Thursday, April 7th from 8-9:30 a.m. in the Red Gym, Mezzanine C. Come identify and develop new tools and strategies to help transform your creative ideas into innovative solutions.

How can you pass that up?

This special "Mini" Big Learning Breakfast will pump you up for the Big Learning Event (being held June 7-8) by providing participants with details about BLE and the study groups created to promote thought-provoking discussion and learning. We will also discuss the BLE as a highly innovative approach to learning that has potential to significantly alter our expectations and opportunities in the future.

Join us at this FREE pre-BLE event and jump-start your brain with discussion and learning.

Network, have fun, learn! Be a MANIAC!

UW-MANIAC is Jammin' at the Union on March 7th

The next MANIAC Jammin' session will be held March 7th, 3-4:30pm at Memorial Union. Facilitated by Darin Eich, Jammin' offers a unique opportunity to network about ideas in a fast-paced, highly energizing manner. In a short time, you'll get LOTS of great feedback about your idea, and make connections with others who can help you bring it successfully to implementation!

Now THAT's a good workshop!

Come to Jammin' on March 7th... it's free, it's fun, it's fantastically useful!

UW Innovation Days - Feb 10-11

The UW-Madison College of Engineering hosts an annual inventions student competition that is in focus these next two days. If you have a chance to check it out, please do so. You can also learn more about this annual event at: http://innovation.wisc.edu/

Our group needs to find better ways to connect with this initiative... each year, a number of really interesting student projects emerge, some of which become viable as products that are adopted in industry. In a number of impressive ways, the College of Engineering engages its students in collaborative, team-based learning activities that prepare them to work in fields that increasingly require such skills.

Next MANIAC Breakfast Offers a 'YES...And' Improv Moment!

The MANIACs will enter the New Year with a bang on Thursday, January 27th when we welcome Barry Callen and Nell Weatherwax for a MANIAC Breakfast on "Improv Skills for the Workplace." We will meet at Memorial Union, 8-9:30am -- please register today for this free program!  Barry and Nell bring a wealth of experience from their work with CORPROV Improv Training, an approach that applies improv skills to a wide range of workplace challenges.

Have fun! Learn some skills! Be a MANIAC!

Next MANIAC Breakfast Plants a Garden of Innovation

The next MANIAC Breakfast focuses on "Planting a MANIAC Garden" with Erin Schneider.What are the core qualities required for creative, collaborative, group thinking and problem-solving? How might these unique characteristics be reflected in a garden, where various plants, fruits, and vegetables co-exist in a healthy, sustainable ecosystem? These are questions that engage the mind of Erin Schneider, an organic farmer and MANIAC Team Member. Join us as we explore the ways Erin has sought to answer these questions, and to consider how these ideas can inform our own efforts to 'plant innovation seeds' in our organizations. Register now!

These bi-monthly gatherings allow us to share creative approaches to professional challenges, identify new tools and strategies that can help us transform creative ideas into innovative solutions, and promote relationships that can help us address emerging needs as they arise.

For additional information, contact Harry Webne-Behrman at OHRD, 608-262-9934 or hwebnebehrman@ohr.wisc.edu

Connect at our next Jammin Innovative Facilitated Networking Session

Have you ever been to a bad networking session? Maybe there was no structure, it was a free-for-all at the beginning of a conference. Maybe it was a disguised as a happy hour at a bar. Maybe you didn’t get the chance to talk to anyone, or worse yet got stuck talking to someone for way too long. Maybe you just talked about the weather and didn’t get to talk about your idea or what you needed or provide any insight or assistance to anybody.

We've been working on innovating the networking session. Join us at our next Jam Session, it's like a facilitated workshop. It is part thinking about important questions, working on your "how you quickly communicate elevator speech," part group introduction, and part one-on-one or one-on-two speed networking. In this jam session people leave with a more comfortable and activity filled experience. They get to share with the whole group, hear from everyone, and go deeper one on one with many new people. They actually get to connect and converse!

Next Innovation Café Focuses on "Technology & Community" Nov 11th

Innovation and Collaboration Café: Technology & Community

Thursday, November 11, 8:30am-1:00pm, Pyle Center, $15

Join us at our next MANIAC Innovation Café!

This is an opportunity to explore a variety of technology tools and how they may be used to enhance innovation and collaboration in the workplace. The workshop will help participants recognize opportunities for technology tools in their workplace and projects; demonstrate the basics of web site design, social media (facebook/ twitter), blogs, surveys, and video conferencing; showcase good examples of technology use; and provide helpdesk support for real world technology questions. Register here! Or go to www.ohrd.wisc.edu, look for upcoming events.

You have MANIAC potential! Join us!