We just flew in from the West coast, and boy are our brains tired!
It’s a play on an old joke we know, but after the whirlwind of non-stop education, networking, and partnering at AUTM’s (the Association of University Technology Managers) Annual meeting in San Francisco, it pretty accurately describes our energy level. AUTM 2014 was a busy meeting for the OTT team as members volunteered, attended sessions, spoke, and participated in partnering sessions over the four day event. While recapping the entire experience is too much for a blog post, here is a rundown of the highlights and takeaways.
Partnering: For the third year in a row, OTT made extensive use of the corporate partnering sessions offered by AUTM. Scheduled beforehand, these 30 minute one-on-one meetings with company representatives gave the OTT team members a chance to discuss particular Emory technologies, gather feedback and learn about each company’s areas of interest. As a whole the team participated in 23 partnering sessions, and the feedback gathered will be used to guide future marketing efforts.
Sessions: OTT members had the opportunity to attend many educational sessions during AUTM 2014, covering a range of topics impacting our industry from funding to patent reform. These sessions serve to keep our team up-to-date on best practices within our industry as well as current issues. OTT’s Marketing Manager, Lisa Matragrano, also organized and participated in a panel discussion covering effective ways to market technologies and track results entitled “You Have a Dedicated Marketing Guru, Now What?”
Volunteering: OTT members remain active participants in AUTM, serving on multiple committees. During the course of the annual meeting these committees met in person and members from OTT manned the AUTM booth. Also of note, this meeting concludes our Executive Director, Todd Sherer’s three-year term as AUTM president.
What is technology transfer?: A major take-home message from the annual meeting was the continued importance of expressing the value of technology transfer. To this end AUTM revealed a short video to be used by its members that succinctly captures both the process of technology transfer and its importance (AUTM’s “About Tech Transfer” video) as well as videos from member institutions showing the impact university innovations can have (AUTM’s “Put a Face On It” initiative). OTT hopes to have its own “Put a Face On It” video to add to AUTM’s library completed this spring.
Keynote: The meeting’s Keynote address was given by Chip Heath, a professor at Stanford University’s School of Business, and focused on a skill that impacts us all both in our professional and personal lives, decision making. In our industry we are often faced with having to make complicated decisions at very risky stages of technical development, and therefore Chip’s discussion was highly relevant. In his talk, Chip gave an overview of better decision making processes, points to consider, and how to be most effective once a decision is made.
AUTM is just one of the meetings that OTT attends each year, along with AdvaMed, BIO International, and JP Morgan Healthcare as part of our overall communications & marketing strategy. These meetings provide our team with opportunities to connect Emory innovations with the companies, and stay abreast of trends and factors affecting technology transfer.