Academic Innovations Higher Ed

Workshop Co-sponsorship Opportunity for Colleges

Questions?

Call (800) 967-8016 and ask for our Workshop Operations team.

What are the Benefits of Co-sponsoring a Workshop on Your Campus?

When a college co-sponsors a workshop with Academic Innovations, by providing appropriate meeting facilities, equipment, and some staff support, you:

  • Bring a high-quality professional development opportunity to the surrounding region -- one that builds area educators’ capacity for providing a course that will impact your college’s completion rates.
  • Free or low cost professional development for your own faculty and staff

This includes:

    • Up to five free registrations for participants of your choice ($400 to $500 value)
    • Up to five additional registrations* at a 50% discount* ($200 to $250 value)
    • One half-price registration for Academic Innovation’s Focus on Freshmen conference in July in Los Angeles.  ($595 value)
*We recommend inviting your local high schools so they can learn about the   Get Focused…Stay Focused! ™ Initiative of Santa Barbara City College, an award winning college/high school collaboration ensuring entering freshmen are college and career ready.

What is Required of a Co-sponsor?

Workshop meeting room requirements:

You probably have many large classrooms or meeting rooms that meet these requirements.  On the date of the workshop we will need the following available between 7:00 AM and 4:00 PM:

  1. The workshop meeting room must be able to hold 40 to 60 people.  The ideal set-up is round tables (set for six people per table), but long tables are adequate. Participants break into small groups for discussion, so stadium or theater seating is not appropriate.
    NOTE: Workshop participants will be working with sets of textbooks and workshop manuals and will need room to spread out around the tables.
  1. In addition, the room must be large enough to allow for an 8- to 10-foot-deep area at the front of the room to accommodate the presenter, a screen, audio-visual equipment, and table for resource materials.
  1. The meeting room must have dimensions that are close to square. Extremely elongated or very narrow, rectangular rooms do not work for this type of event.
  1. Ceiling height of the room must be at least 9 feet due to audio-visual and projection requirements.
  1. A screen must be available as we will project a PowerPoint/Keynote presentation and videos throughout the workshop.
  1. If the room has a built-in speaker system/LCD for our audio/visual needs, that is a plus.  We can bring our own speakers/LCD with notice.
  1. We prefer the ability to dim overhead lights or selectively turn off lights when videos are shown.

Registration area and staffing requirements:

  • We will need an area where participants can check in/register the morning of the workshop. This will require two long tables equaling at least 16 feet in length so the books and workshop handouts can be set out. 
  • At least one staff/support person will be needed to help the trainer with registration for the hour prior to the workshop (from 7:30 AM to 8:30 AM).

Catering requirements:

Academic Innovations will pay for the services of the college caterer or an off site caterer.

We like to serve:

  • Morning coffee and tea (caffeinated, decaffeinated, and herbal) prior to the workshop
  • Mid-morning coffee and a healthy snack
  • Buffet lunch (detailed below)
  • Afternoon break with cold drinks and a snack

We can either work with your on-campus caterer or with an off-site caterer you recommend.

Lunch requirements: A buffet or box lunch
If the room is large enough to allow for set-up without disturbing the workshop, then using the back of the meeting room to serve lunch is preferred.  If not, we need a room or area where the lunch can be set up just outside the meeting room so participants don’t have to go too far. 

Timing on the day of the meeting:

  • Meeting room needs to be set up by college personnel the night before the event or no later than 7:00 AM on the day of the event.  The delivered and stored books and workshop materials needs to be transported to the room by college personnel/maintenance staff no later than 7:00 AM.
  • Registration area set up no later than 7:30 AM on the day of the event with the help of an assigned staff person.
  • Workshop participants start arriving about 8:00 AM and the workshop finishes no later than 4:00 PM

Storage of books prior to the workshop

We ship in 10 to 20 cartons (on average) of books and other materials that are given to the workshop participants. These will arrive approximately 5 days prior to the workshop. The boxes will need to be stored and then delivered to the meeting room the evening before or early on the morning of the event by college maintenance staff.

Registration of participants:

While this can be a big job, the co-sponsoring college will not be responsible for this task.  Academic Innovations’ will track registrations for workshop participants using our online workshop registration system.  This makes it easy for the co-sponsor.

How does it work? 
Both Academic Innovations and your college will be communicating with constituents about this workshop.

  • Individuals register online and are invoiced through that system.
  • If you have a group you want registered, your Academic Innovations Educational Consultant can help facilitate the registration of larger groups through that system.
  • Participants you choose to receive the complimentary or discounted registrations noted above will be provided with a special code so they can register online and receive the appropriate discounts.

Other important considerations that help make great workshops, but are not mandatory:

Internet and AV equipment:

Except for a screen, our trainers can travel with their own equipment (i.e., LCD and portable speakers).  However, if the meeting space has this equipment already, this makes the set-up and delivery that much easier and the production quality much better.

    • Does the room have internet access for the instructor?  For the participants?
    • Does the room have a built in screen and LCD the trainer could use with their laptop?  Or does the trainer need to bring their files on a hard drive that is hooked up to an existing computer with the LCD? If so, what operating system (Windows or Mac) and presentation software (PowerPoint or Keynote) does this computer run?
    • What is the availability for technical help if the trainer experiences problems?  Would someone be available to orient the trainer to this equipment an hour before the workshop?

Considerations on which we need your input:

  • Overnight rooms for out-of-town participants and the trainer
    Most of our workshop participants travel from within driving distance of your city and do not spend the night. For the few needing overnight accommodations, suggestions of close, good-value hotels would be appreciated.

    At what nearby hotel would you recommend the trainer stay?

    What transportation options are available for the trainer from these local hotels to your college?

  • Parking fees or arrangements for the participants
    What on-campus parking is available for outside participants?  Is there a fee?

Thank you for your attention to this request. By providing the details now via the online questionnaire we can determine if this will be a mutually beneficial collaboration. These details will automatically generate a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will help make the workshop operations both efficient and easy for you and for us. 

We look forward to hearing from you and hope we have the opportunity to work with you.