Registration to WST 2019 is now closed.
Click here for more details on the main event programme – 14 March.
Click here for more details on the pre-event programme – 13 March.
Work Smarter Together 2019 Overview
Work Smarter Together 2019 (WST 2019), with the theme “Our people, shaping a better future”, takes place on 14 March 2019 and we are very excited to hold this year’s event in the Student Centre’s great facilities.
This year’s theme puts the focus on us, the UCD community, as we look to shape a future whose uncertainties never seem to grow less, a future in which complexity looks to grow, a future in which our creativity and collaboration will still be needed in shaping what comes. In planning WST 2019 we took your feedback on WST 2017 and have both narrowed and deepened our suite of parallel sessions as well as working to make sure each offers you the opportunity to both be inspired by what your colleagues share and be drawn into the conversation.
The WST tradition
Work Smarter Together, as an expression of the great things which go on within the UCD community, is all about celebrating and supporting the collaboration and creativity that help make UCD a great place to work, to teach, to research, to study. (You will see lots more on this in the rest of the WST website). We are really happy and excited to be able to continue the WST tradition started in 2014, built upon in 2017, and now calling us to a great WST 2019.
Key dates?
There are only three.
- February 13 – registration opens for the event and its sessions
- March 13 – the pre-event workshops will run on the afternoon of March 13
- March 14 – the main event will start at 10am and run through to 4pm
Speakers
Manley Hopkinson
We are happy to welcome Manley Hopkinson as our keynote speaker, shaping the day for us in opening and closing sessions, as well as Aine McCleary, of the Bank of Ireland and the Institute of Bankers, who will be our plenary speaker at the start of the afternoon. More information on these sessions soon – why we asked them to join us and what they will talk about.
We will have six breakout session – three in the morning, three in the afternoon – as well as an extensive poster exhibition. Over 50 colleagues from across the campus came forward with ideas for the event and we are working with them now on weaving the various strands of the theme into what they bring to WST 2019.
Áine McCleary
As we did in 2017, on the afternoon of March 13 we will also be running some pre-event workshops.
Shape of the day
The shape of the day is broadly a familiar – we open with the keynote speaker, Manley Hopkinson, have one set of breakout sessions before lunch, begin the afternoon with the second plenary speaker, Aine McCleary, close with Manley Hopkinson, and say farewell as we promise to meet again in March 2021.
Special thanks
UCD Agile sponsors WST so work on this is their ‘day job’, so to speak. But WST is very much driven by the energy, commitment and enthusiasm of colleagues from across the University. The The WST Event Group is:
Andrew Myler (Registry), Caroline McTeigue (Registry), Ciaran Bennet (Estates), Santiago Astorga (Estates), Dipti Pandya (Research Administration), Jason Masterson (Student Services), Andy Taylor (Student Centre), Lorna Bailey (Student Centre), Michael Sinnott (UCD Agile), Helen Kenny (School of Economics), Olga Murdoch (UCD Agile), Mark Simpson (Human Resources), Paul Fitzgerald (Human Resources), Marie Burke (Library), Allan Maguire (Finance Office), Paul Barry (IT Services), Michelle Latimer (Library)
A final thought
WST is not just about the day itself – it is about how the UCD community comes together to make it possible. By the close of WST 2017 over 110 colleagues from across the campus had made direct contributions through presenting, posters, chairing, welcoming, planning, training, running workshops, registration, videoing, volunteering etc. etc. From this point of view WST 2017 was a success before ever a name badge was pinned on a chest on March 15th 2017. The same spirit is driving WST 2019.
If you are interested in contributing then be sure to mail us at agile@ucd.ie – subject line “WST Hands on deck”, and an idea of what you might be interested in.