Team meeting 20130402

Present: Angela Nekesa, Ewen Le Borgne, Iain Wright, Silvia Silvestri, Susan MacMillan, Tadelle Dessie, Tezira Lore, Vish Nene. Back to overview of team meeting minutes

Agenda

• Last seminar: Assessment and next steps
• Next seminar: How to make agriculture more attractive to young people in Africa: The case of Well Told Story comic books
• Upcoming Seminars:

May: IP seminar - dates not fixed still and presenters depending on final date (Kees may not be available) June: Dairy hubs confirmed July: We think it should be skipped.

• AOB:

Results from the overall survey and what to do about it How to bring staff and directors to the seminars (APM discussion)?

Action points:

• (DONE) Hilary/IT to add WebEx link to http://ilri.org/livestream
• (DONE) Ewen to draft (finalise) blog post including PPT embedded and link to livestream
• (NOT DONE & check) Ewen to prepare survey for this seminar and to send it out to all LIVES participants and other people that participated - would need your inputs on this for whoever was present in Nairobi - very little feedback on previous surveys - should we continue?
• Jane to check availability of Klaus and to let us all know.
• Angela to keep everyone in this group updated about progress and action points for Rob Burnett's seminar - and to seek help at soonest as and when needed
• Tezira to chase Angela on updates about the Rob Burnett seminar
• All to go through survey results (see 'actual' Skype chat for this meeting in your Skype history) and share their top 3 recommendations from the results at the next meeting?

Discussion minutes

Next team meeting: Friday ?? January, 2-3pm.

Last seminar

• Very little turnout in Nairobi
• The audio quality was not clear
• The connection was good but towards the end the audio was not good - probably due to bad internet connection in Nairobi then
• The presentation was enjoyable, good to see the pictures
• It was a bit standard as a seminar - they didn't go out of their way to talk to people as if they had never heard about IPMS - this wouldn't entice donors to attend the seminar
• The content was not novel for insiders and the way it was brought about was also not that innovative
• Perhaps it would have been great to have farmers or other Ethiopians to speak
• The presentation was indeed very standard - it was shared with Ewen one day before the presentation day, in the middle of the LIVES workshop, making it very difficult to adjust beforehand - though the presenters cut back their presentation by 1/3 and they were given (last minute) even less time than they initial thought they would take (15' each)
• The seminar could have been a lot more interactive but here you go: 3 scientists wanting to talk were going to spend a lot of time. It would have been a lot more interesting to zoom in on one aspect of the project and get our heads properly around it, but presenters wanted to show the entire project overview and lessons instead.
• It went ok (except for audio) but it could have been so much more.

Follow up:

• Hilary's working on adding the recording link to [[1]]
• ACTION: Hilary/IT to add WebEx link to http://ilri.org/livestream
• ACTION: Ewen to draft (finalise) blog post including PPT embedded and link to livestream
• ACTION: Ewen to prepare survey for this seminar and to send it out to all LIVES participants and other people that participated - would need your inputs on this for whoever was present in Nairobi

Next seminar - How to make agriculture more attractive to young people in Africa: The case of Well Told Story comic books

Angela gave Tezira her feedback for her action point: "Rob Burnett promised to send his profile, not yet received it" ACTION: Angela to keep everyone in this group updated about progress and action points for Rob Burnett's seminar - and to seek help at soonest as and when needed ACTION: Tezira to chase Angela on updates about the Rob Burnett seminar

Other upcoming seminars ( see list of planned & tentative seminars)

July: No seminar

We think it'd be best to skip July, to follow some of the recommendations from the survey and because there will be fewer staff than usual available then.

August:

RE: Klaus' availability for LLT in August, Jane is still following this up. He has been travelling and is yet to respond and confirm if he will be available. ACTION: Jane to check availability of Klaus and to let us all know.

AOB

Overall survey

The survey was shared with all but no one has yet reacted.

ACTION: All to go through survey results and share their top 3 recommendations from the results at the next meeting?

Other points

Other points to be discussed with a wider team at next meeting. Vish shared this with the group prior to the meeting, as he couldn't join it: I thought that we had agreed to have a sessions at APM on the value of the seminars? There seems to be a consensus that perhaps the initial reason for holding these seminars is straying? In addition, we have challenges of attendance and audio/visusal. So lots to discuss in terms of the future of the series? This (IPMS) was an excellent overview seminar of what took place in IPMS etc. However, in retrospect I wonder if this should have been part of the live talks series as originally concevied? I wonder of one way of energizing this if John and Suzanne should have joint responsibilty to convene the series? If we go back to the concept of these being cross-cutting, forwarding thinking, aligning ILRI with the global and CRP agendas then they can be done in the context of ILRI's new strategy where the 2 DDGs think about the speakers, content and audience so that these truely become an ILRI seminar series, etc. E.g., local partnerships is one of the key success factors - so there could be presentations made by the Directors of KARI and EIAR, etc. Just a thought among many I am sure.

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Full skype minutes

[09:37:49] Vish Nene (pashaleo): i thought that we had agreed to have a sessions at APM on the value of the seminars? There seems to be a consensus that perhaps the initial reason for holding these seminars is straying? In addition, we have challenges of attendance and audio/visusal. So lots to discuss in terms of the future of the series?

[09:43:21] Ewen Le Borgne: Thanks for this- About the IPMS seminar? we need more inputs from scientists as otherwise we end up talking among ourselves comms team ;) Silvia's not around, Iain is out and I don't have Tadelle's Skype ID yet but am hopeful he will join us

[09:48:05] Vish Nene (pashaleo): This was an excellent overview seminar of what took place in IPMS etc. However, in retrospect I wonder if this should have been part of the live talks series as originally concevied? I wonder of one way of energizing this if John and Suzanne should have joint responsibilty to convene the series?

[09:56:24] Ewen Le Borgne: Can you expand on that last idea? I'm gonna have to dash out in the meantime for another meeting but should be here in an hour to initiate the call with you lot

[10:04:57] Vish Nene (pashaleo): If we go back to the concept of these being cross-cutting, forwarding thinking, aligning ILRI with the global and CRP agendas then they can be done in the context of ILRI's new strategy where the 2 DDGs think about the speakers, content and audience so that these truely become an ILRI seminar series, etc. E.g., local partnerships is one of the key success factors - so there could be presentations made by the Directors of KARI and EIAR, etc. Just a thought among many I am sure.

[10:17:56] Vish Nene (pashaleo): gotta go for my plane. will catch up later.

[10:44:17] Ewen Le Borgne: Thank you Vish and safe travels!

[10:59:32] Ewen Le Borgne: Ok shall we launch this then?

[10:59:38] Ewen Le Borgne: Is Angela joining us today?

[11:00:13] * Group call *

[11:02:12] Ewen Le Borgne: Grace - no can't hear you clearly at all

[11:02:23] Ewen Le Borgne: Otherwise best is that you chat (text) with us

[11:02:30] Ewen Le Borgne: If you can't find a mic

[11:03:02] Grace Miceka: Ok..

[11:03:23] Ewen Le Borgne: http://ilriseminars.wikispaces.com/team_meeting_20130402

[11:04:06] Ewen Le Borgne: Do you have any feedback to the previous seminar?

[11:04:06] Grace Miceka: Ewen, you are breaking up

[11:04:18] Ewen Le Borgne: The connection is not great in Addis still

[11:04:23] Grace Miceka: No feedback so far

[11:04:26] Ewen Le Borgne: Better than it has been

[11:04:31] Ewen Le Borgne: Tezira?

[11:04:46] Grace Miceka: The connecton was good but towards the end the audio was not good

[11:04:57] Grace Miceka: so probably as a result of internet problems

[11:06:32] Ewen Le Borgne: Grace - when you want to talk please text

[11:06:38] Grace Miceka: Ok..

[11:06:51] Grace Miceka: Towards the end the audio was breaking

[11:07:01] Grace Miceka: probably as a result of internet connection

[11:07:12] Ewen Le Borgne: In Addis or in Nairobi or both?

[11:07:18] Grace Miceka: Nairobi

[11:07:28] Ewen Le Borgne: Ok

[11:07:33] Ewen Le Borgne: Content wise or process-wise?

[11:10:34] Grace Miceka: none

[11:11:43] Ewen Le Borgne: I thought the presentation was indeed very standard - I received it one day before the presentaiton day, in the middle of the workshop, difficult to adjust beforehand - though they cut back their presentation by 1/3 and they were given (last minute) even less time than they thought they would take

[11:11:51] Grace Miceka: you are breaking up..

[11:11:56] Grace Miceka: the connection is not good

[11:12:21] Ewen Le Borgne: Let's do all of this by text only

[11:12:32] Ewen Le Borgne: It's too weak on both sides for voice over

[11:13:26] * Call ended, duration 13:05 *

[11:13:35] Ewen Le Borgne: I thought the seminar could have been a lot more interactive but here you go: 3 scientists wanting to talk were going to spend a lot of time. I'm personally quite disappointed because despite repeated efforts to get their inputs on time, well before the seminar, I didn't get them on time and we had this presentation which was also too much for too many people

[11:14:00] Ewen Le Borgne: I.e. it would have been a lot more interesting to zoom in on one aspect of the project and get our heads properly around it, but they wanted to show the entire project overview and lessons instead

[11:14:10] Ewen Le Borgne: It went ok (except for audio) but it could have been so much more

[11:14:40] Ewen Le Borgne: And I think the feedback from the survey will help us build up on these seminars to gear ourselves one or two levels up from what we have now

[11:14:47] Ewen Le Borgne: So that's that for my feedback

[11:14:56] Ewen Le Borgne: ARE YOU FOLKS HAPPY TO PROCEED WITH TEXT BASED CHAT ONLY?

[11:15:01] Ewen Le Borgne: Audio is really too weak

[11:15:01] Tezira Lore: Noted

[11:15:21] Grace Miceka: Thanks. Did you manage to get the webex recording in wma format?

[11:15:47] Grace Miceka: Hilary is working on adding a link to http://ilri.org/livestream

[11:15:47] Ewen Le Borgne: To Grace: nope. I asked Addis IT for support on this while I was dealing with the workshop and other meetings but haven't heard from them

[11:15:57] Ewen Le Borgne: Great! That Hilary's adding the link

[11:16:05] Grace Miceka: I'll forward the WMA link..

[11:16:13] Ewen Le Borgne: In terms of follow up, this is what needs to happen - lmk if I forget anything

[11:17:19] Ewen Le Borgne: ACTION: Hilary/IT to add WebEx link to http://ilri.org/livestream

ACTION: Ewen to draft (finalise) blog post including PPT embedded and link to livestream

ACTION: Ewen to prepare survey for this seminar and to send it out to all LIVES participants and other people that participated - would need your inputs on this for whoever was present in Nairobi

[11:17:28] Ewen Le Borgne: Did I miss anything?

[11:17:33] Ewen Le Borgne: Thank you Grace

[11:17:42] Grace Miceka: To Ewen: When is the next seminar? Will it be held in Nairobi or Addis?

[11:17:49] Ewen Le Borgne: In Nairobi on 24 April

[11:18:00] Ewen Le Borgne: Tezira, Susan, did I miss any action point?

[11:18:11] Ewen Le Borgne: Before we proceed with 2. NEXT SEMINAR

[11:18:14] Ewen Le Borgne: ?

[11:19:26] Tezira Lore: RE: Klaus' availability for LLT in August, Jane is still following this up. He has been travelling and is yet to respond and confirm if he will be available.

[11:19:55] Ewen Le Borgne: Ok, that will come a bit later. From last seminar, is there anything else that you can think of in terms of follow up?

[11:20:07] Ewen Le Borgne: If not, let's then focus on 2. Rob's seminar...

[11:20:11] Tezira Lore: nothing else from last seminar

[11:20:20] Ewen Le Borgne: Ok

[11:20:43] Ewen Le Borgne: So for the next seminar the slight issue is that Angela's the one coordinating it. Do you lot know anything about it?

[11:21:00] Ewen Le Borgne: We need to get going with the flyer, information about the process etc.

[11:21:19] Tezira Lore: She gave me her feedback for her action point: "Rob Burnett promised to send his profile, not yet received it"

[11:22:15] Ewen Le Borgne: Ok - can either of you in Nbi make sure that Angela follows up quickly on this and that in the 2-3 days following her return from leave she keeps us all updated?

[11:22:19] Ewen Le Borgne: That would be great

[11:22:52] Ewen Le Borgne: ACTION: Angela to keep everyone in this group updated about progress and action points for Rob Burnett's seminar - and to seek help at soonest as and when needed

[11:23:12] Tezira Lore: Noted; will follow up with Angela

[11:23:21] Ewen Le Borgne: (y) Thank you very much Tezira

[11:23:37] Ewen Le Borgne: Ok so then we move on to point 3. UPCOMING SEMINARS

[11:23:53] Ewen Le Borgne: In May, we have the IP seminar. Right now in conversation with Kees, Jo and a handful of others

[11:24:06] Ewen Le Borgne: The date is not fixed because all of a sudden Kees couldn't make it any more on 22 May

[11:24:30] Ewen Le Borgne: We could try and organise it the week after - that's in the middle of the Prolinnova 'Week on African Innovation in Agriculture'

[11:24:56] Ewen Le Borgne: So it would make sense somehow, but the issue is that the main event will be taking place outside ILRI and I'm not sure whether ILRI can bring IT equipment to make it happen from there

[11:25:00] Ewen Le Borgne: Perhaps Grace has some ideas about this

[11:25:26] Ewen Le Borgne: The format suggested for that session is as follows:

[11:25:44] Ewen Le Borgne: A chat show

[11:25:47] Ewen Le Borgne: Chat show host: Peter Ballantyne?

Chat show participants: Jo Cadilhon, Alan Duncan, Cees Leeuwis, Kees Swaans

30 minutes of chat show followed by questions and answers.

Chat show questions:

• What are innovation platforms from ILRI’s perspective? For Jo, to explain the definition from ILRI’s December 2012 workshop

• How has ILRI used innovation platforms in the past to promote livestock development activities? For Kees, to review the key lessons learned from past experiences on innovation platforms by ILRI

• Are there other organizations than ILRI who have used tools similar to innovation platforms? And if so, what are the major differences and commonalities with ILRI’s? For Cees (focus on other CGs and WUR activities) and for Jo (national commodity associations in developing countries). Put the emphasis on the different names given to this loose concept which try to achieve similar goals.

• Why are innovation platforms important for ILRI and livestock systems in developing countries? For Alan and Cees. Alan to conclude on ‘historic’ involvement by ILRI into innovation paltforms and call for continuing to work with and on the concept at ILRI through various CRPs. Alan to inform about objective and outputs of the writeshop. Ceeus to illustrate this with the research plan for research on innovation platforms within CRP Humidtropics.

Questions from the floor.

[11:26:28] Ewen Le Borgne: I am working with Ann Waters-Bayer and Bernard Triomphe (the meta-organisers of the WAIA / week on African Innov in Ag) to see if we can accommodate the seminar as part of the event program

[11:26:37] Ewen Le Borgne: Otherwise this seminar will have to take place on 22 May without Kees

[11:26:49] Ewen Le Borgne: Which is also an option but would miss out on the previous experiences from ILRI in this regard

[11:26:53] Ewen Le Borgne: More updates on this soon

[11:27:10] Tezira Lore: OK. Do you know the venue for this Prolinnova meeting?

[11:27:20] Ewen Le Borgne: ACTION: Ewen to clarify process and dates for the IP/IS seminar with Jo, Kees etc. and keep everyone in this group here

[11:27:23] Ewen Le Borgne: Yes, hold on

[11:27:46] Ewen Le Borgne: KCB Leadership Training Centre

[11:27:52] Ewen Le Borgne: No idea what it is or where it is ha ha ha

[11:28:00] Tezira Lore: It's in Karen

[11:28:06] Ewen Le Borgne: Is it a nice venue

[11:28:09] Ewen Le Borgne: ?

[11:28:21] Tezira Lore: Never been there but I guess it is

[11:28:35] Ewen Le Borgne: Ok, we'll see

[11:28:38] Ewen Le Borgne: So that's for May. Now for June we have 'Dairy hubs in East Africa: Lessons from the East Africa Dairy Development Project' pencilled in

[11:28:47] Ewen Le Borgne: Any update on this?

[11:29:58] Tezira Lore: Confirmed that Isabelle Baltenweck will co-present with Gerald Mutinda of EADD.

[11:30:36] Ewen Le Borgne: Ok - good! Any chance to get going with the flyer etc. early on? And to get the presentation shared well beforehand?

[11:32:24] Tezira Lore: Yes, I can follow up with Gerald & Isabelle to get their bios, photos and presentation synopsis for the flyer. Will try and get the presentation early enough but often we can't influence this because some people are last-minuters...

[11:32:49] Ewen Le Borgne: Sure - as was the case with the IPMS mob ;) Do what you can

[11:32:51] Ewen Le Borgne: Thank you T

[11:32:54] Ewen Le Borgne: For July, I'd rather skip 'social learning in climate change' unless Peter really buys into this again. And July might be indeed a quiet month

[11:33:11] Ewen Le Borgne: Would you know of any possible replacement? And where do you stand on going forward or skipping the July seminar?

[11:34:09] Ewen Le Borgne: Susan, are you with us?

[11:34:13] Tezira Lore: I agree with the view that we may need to skip the July seminar as many scientists are away on home leave and it is generally a quiet month

[11:34:22] Ewen Le Borgne: Ok

[11:34:25] Ewen Le Borgne: Susan, Grace?

[11:36:28] Ewen Le Borgne: I don't know what to do if it's just you and me Tezira

[11:36:52] Grace Miceka: Am here

[11:36:57] Ewen Le Borgne: Ok

[11:36:59] Ewen Le Borgne: Good

[11:37:28] Ewen Le Borgne: Shall we have a look at the next point, in the absence of any other feedback about July seminar?

[11:37:36] Ewen Le Borgne: Or what do you think Grace?

[11:37:56] Grace Miceka: sure

[11:38:08] Grace Miceka: I'll respond on quest asked on email

[11:38:16] Ewen Le Borgne: Which question?

[11:38:49] Grace Miceka: Email from Peter regaiding a seminar where the presenter will be off campus

[11:39:07] Grace Miceka: We can use webex for such...

[11:39:15] Ewen Le Borgne: Ok! Great (Grace). In the meantime, 4. OVERALL SURVEY. Have you had a look Tezira, Susan, Grace?

[11:39:55] Tezira Lore: Yes I had a look at the survey results - well analysex

[11:40:04] Tezira Lore: *analysed*

[11:40:15] Grace Miceka: Haven't looked at it..are the results on survey monkey?

[11:40:21] Ewen Le Borgne: Yes

[11:40:45] Ewen Le Borgne: And hereby for your info - I don't think I circulated this to you and Hilary since you're not on the email group (but should be)

[11:40:53] Grace Miceka: I'll go through and provide feedback in the next meeting

[11:41:02] * Ewen Le Borgne sent Livestock live talk survey results - ELB.docx Livestock live talk survey results - ELB.docx Livestock live talk survey results - ELB.docx Livestock live talk survey results - ELB.docx Livestock live talk survey results - ELB.docx Livestock live talk survey results - ELB.docx Livestock live talk survey results - ELB.docx *

[11:41:07] Ewen Le Borgne: Great

[11:41:14] Ewen Le Borgne: Tezira: How do you suggest we proceed with this?

[11:42:39] Ewen Le Borgne: Discuss polishing this Word doc to make it 'presentable', agree among us on some main pointers / recommendations that we'd like to highlight back to staff (together with the full report), draft a blog post (or email) introducing both and share it with all ILRI staff?

[11:46:30] Grace Miceka: please resend the document.

[11:46:40] Tezira Lore: I think point #2 - agree the main recommendations

[11:46:43] * Ewen Le Borgne sent Livestock live talk survey results - ELB.docx Livestock live talk survey results - ELB.docx Livestock live talk survey results - ELB.docx Livestock live talk survey results - ELB.docx Livestock live talk survey results - ELB.docx Livestock live talk survey results - ELB.docx Livestock live talk survey results - ELB.docx *

[11:47:01] Ewen Le Borgne: Here you go

[11:47:06] Ewen Le Borgne: I thought we could even do all of this

[11:47:07] Grace Miceka: Thx

[11:47:14] Ewen Le Borgne: But perhaps we just need point 2

[11:47:39] Ewen Le Borgne: So could we agree this: ACTION: All to go through survey results and share their top 3 recommendations from the results at the next meeting?

[11:48:43] Ewen Le Borgne: We'll need to have the latter soon so we can hear more about the April seminar. Angela's back next week, right?

[11:49:11] Tezira Lore: yes

[11:49:34] Ewen Le Borgne: Yes to Angela's back next week or yes to agree on the action?

[11:49:47] Tezira Lore: she will be back next week

[11:50:09] Ewen Le Borgne: Ok. And do you disagree about the action point?

[11:50:13] Ewen Le Borgne: If not, let's roll with it

[11:50:18] Tezira Lore: agree

[11:50:21] Ewen Le Borgne: Given our small group (and Susan's idleness) let's not dwell on other points either and park them for next week

[11:50:27] Ewen Le Borgne: I'll send a new invite to you all

[11:50:38] Ewen Le Borgne: Any final thought on your mind or heart?

[11:50:53] Tezira Lore: Nothing to add

[11:51:04] Grace Miceka: None from me

[11:51:21] Ewen Le Borgne: Ok - then thank you very much for your participation!

[11:51:43] Ewen Le Borgne: Watch your inbox for the next team discussion and please check minutes and action points to this meeting when I circulate them ;)

[11:51:45] Ewen Le Borgne: Cheers!

[11:51:49] Ewen Le Borgne: Ciao (wave)

[11:51:51] Grace Miceka: Bye

[11:51:57] Tezira Lore: OK. Thanks & bye!

[13:25:56] Susan McMillan: So sorry I lost you all!!!

[13:26:22] Susan McMillan: Think it would be EXCITNG to have the next seminar as part of the conference in Nairobi!!! Hope that can be effected.

[13:26:51] Susan McMillan: Regarding my take aways from the livestock live talk survey:

[13:27:29] Susan McMillan: (1) Find ways to promote the series better, more regularly using senior staff and champions, and targetting ILRI's new and younger staff as well.

[13:29:22] Susan McMillan: (2) Reduce the series to once every two months rather than every month to give us time to go through the presentation with the presenters; and we cancel any presenters that don't manage to deliver for a wider audience in our previews of their presentations; bottom line: we make sure that every presentation reaches a minimum standard of interest for wide audiences.

[13:30:20] Susan McMillan: (3) We STRONGLY recommend that most presenters NOT use Powerpoint, unless they can prove to us that it is a winner. Otherwise, we should use more engaging kinds of structures.

[13:30:33] Susan McMillan: All for now! Sorry again to disappear on you!