WK 36 - CANCELLED - How to Create an Engaging and Successful Tech-specific Outreach Event

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Session Description: This workshop will show the audience how we approach tech outreach. ‘How to Create an Engaging and Successful Tech-specific Outreach Event’ is motivated by our experience organizing outreach events as graduate students and early career professionals within university and community settings. Through these diverse experiences, we have amassed strategies for how to present STEM knowledge, specifically technology-related knowledge, to populations of learners from different backgrounds.

We will demonstrate a computer-based activity by interacting with the audience as though they were the general public at an outreach event. This example of an activity will lead to a more thorough discussion of outreach events in general.

We plan to overview what outreach events can encompass and explain how to go about creating an event through concrete steps. These steps include 1) setting goals for maximum engagement, 2) deciding which internal and external parties to involve, 3) incorporating accessibility and equity, and 4) determining what venues/strategies best fit your outreach (ie. community halls, surveys, canvassing, volunteers, committee building). We will discuss what has and hasn’t worked for us in the past and describe how to set goals and measure success. This will also include the challenges unique to hosting tech-specific STEM events, especially surrounding the use of and access to computers. Lastly, we will describe some methods for disseminating your work that will extend the impact of your outreach beyond the day of the event such as creating websites, worksheets, and shareable presentations.