EGI User Forum round up

Last week saw many NGS staff attend the EGI User Forum 2011 which was held in Vilnius, Lithuania. Many NGS staff attending were actively involved in sessions either chairing or presenting as well as helping out on the UK NGI (UK National Grid Initiative) exhibition stand.
Personally my main involvement was ensuring that the UK NGI exhibition stand got there in one piece and that staff from NGS and GridPP were on hand to answer questions from delegates about our organisation. We had a very busy stand – possibly one of the busiest we’ve had at these events which was good to see.

I was also presenting at the EGI Dissemination session which was chaired by Neasan O’Neill, NGI Dissemination Coordinator. Neasan had asked some of the more established NGI’s to discuss the dissemination methods they had found most useful and effective. I presented on the NGS roadshows of which there have been 12. I discussed the content of a typical roadshow, the feedback we receive directly after the event and the follow up I do approximately 3 months after the event.

I also ran through (very quickly!) the other dissemination methods we have including our user case studies, our quarterly newsletter and the innovation forums. There were quite a few questions and some good discussion after the presentations with quite a few leaflets disappearing from the stand as well which meant less to carry home!

The conference was excellent in general with a brilliant venue and fantastic organisation. The next EGI event is the Technical Forum which will take place in Lyon in France on the 19th – 23rd September 2011.