Uninovis speed dating session
Within the framework of international week, TAMK Uninovis team members Tiina Koskiranta and Kaisa Kokko facilitated a networking event for those interested in hearing about the Uninovis alliance. While Tiina is the Uninovis project manager, overseeing the whole TAMK team, Kaisa leads the work package 2 on lifelong learning and studies. The session was open for everyone and aroused great interest in the conference crowd. Alongside TAMK’s Uninovis team, a good number of Uninovis colleagues from France, Germany and Albania also attended. This certainly brought more depth into the discussions and testifies to the fact that we really are forming a “European family” here.
The aim of the session was to create new contacts between representatives of the partner universities, because face-to-face meetings and introductions typically lead to the creation of something concrete, new and co-developable. After a few warm-up exercises, the participants were divided into smaller table groups. Short introductions were followed by lively debates, based on some thought-provoking questions provided by the session organizers. Participants were, for instance, asked to share the most memorable international moment in one’s life and a fact about themselves that they would never include in their CV. After 10 minutes there was a change of people from one table to another, like in a speed dating event. Judged by the laughter and happy faces, much fun was had during the session, and a one-hour time frame seemed almost too short.
Towards the end of the session, a Uninovis coordinator Sandra Carlier from University Sorbonne Paris Nord, handed out some leaflets and said a few words about the Uninovis alliance. USPN is the coordinating HEI in Uninovis and hence in charge of the general management of the entire alliance. Sandra also wanted to surprise her best friend on her birthday by sending a video greeting from Finland, to which all the fellow participants happily joined. Surely there is no greater way to close a conference session than around 50 people singing together Happy birthday to you.
Uninovis as a story
As part of the Uninovis track, a two-hour storification workshop was also organized. The workshop was led by a story designer Anne Kalliomäki and an event specialist Tuuli-Elina Andersén, both pioneers in the field. Given that Uninovis is a common effort, it is important that we verbalize its content and objectives as simply as possible, in a story-like fashion. This will hopefully lower people’s threshold for joining Uninovis activies and its further development, not only here at TAMK but also at other partner universities.
It is safe to say that for most workshop participants story telling as a method of brand building was a new thing. This did not curb the enthusiasm, though. A lively chatter filled the classroom when participants shared their stories and commented those of their colleagues.
Although we did not quite finish the Uninovis story during the workshop, a lot of new ideas popped up, which can now be incorporated into the story version we have been working on at TAMK. The Uninovis colleagues agreed that the alliance should have one, shared story, written in a language that everybody understands, without unnecessary project jargon. As Martynas Radzevičius from Kauno Kolegia rightly pointed out, the story should reflect the uniqueness of Uninovis. Vice President of THWS Achim Förster concluded the discussion succinctly by saying “To be able to engage our staff and students in Uninovis we have to write a story where anyone can see him or herself in!”.
Uninovis partner universities are:
- Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu (TAMK)
- Sorbonne Paris Nord University (USPN)
- Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (THWS)
- University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli (UDCLV)
- University of Málaga (UMA)
- University of Tirana (UT)
- Kaunas University of Applied Sciences (KK)
For more information about Uninovis, visit our website .
Text & images: Kirsi Popova, Senior Adviser, who is responsible for Uninovis communication at TAMK
