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Research has shown the importance of family-school collaboration in promoting positive student outcomes, but also the lack of satisfaction and trust on the part of both teachers and family members, especially with cross-cultural interactions. A key barrier is the lack of teacher professional development regarding research-based practices and systemic support (e.g., resources, time). This paper presents a research-based conference strategy designed to cultivate a trusting relationship between families and educators, referred to as Building Equitable Trusting Relationships (BETR). Critical to this trust-building process is understanding how one's own (and the organization's) culture and norms shape the expectations and actions in support or detriment of establishing trust. The three-step process for engaging in the ongoing and iterative work of becoming more culturally competent: 1) Cultural Self-Study, 2) Acquiring Cultural Knowledge, and 3) Putting Knowledge to Practice (CAP) is demonstrated in the context of the BETR meeting model. Evidence, illustrations, and possible adaptations for implementing this strategy with diverse families across contexts are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refusal, rest, and joy--three words not typically associated with conversations on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Yet, as this article demonstrates, they are essential concepts for equity-deserving groups. This article documents a conference presentation design in support of equity-deserving groups when speaking to predominantly white audiences. Acts of refusal embedded in the design included: offering our presentation through a storytelling method called narrative métissage; vetting questions prior to responding for Q & A; and encouraging audience members, especially racialised audience members, to prioritise and experience both rest and joy. Throughout the article, we discuss the theoretical underpinnings of our decisions. We close with a call to organisational practitioners to respect acts of refusal and centre the joy, safety, and well-being of equity-deserving groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As America's central bank, the Federal Reserve ("Fed") is unique among independent agencies in exercising powers that the U.S. Constitution granted to the legislative branch--namely, regulating the value of money and borrowing funds directly from the public. In delegating these powers, Congress designed the Fed to ensure that its monetary policy decisions would be insulated from political interference. Furthermore, Congress has a constitutional obligation to maintain effective oversight of the Fed's exercise of these duties. Over the past fifteen years, however, the scope and complexity of monetary policy has outpaced Congress's ability to monitor these policies through existing mechanisms of oversight. For example, internal shifts in the Fed's governance and power dynamics have led to the disappearance of dissents on monetary policy decisions, thereby hampering legislators' abilities to discern the range of views that have informed those decisions. Moreover, in conducting its latest round of securities purchases ("QE4") during 2020--22, the Fed did not provide legislators with cost-benefit analyses or risk assessments at any stage of the program. Indeed, QE4 is now likely to cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion, but its efficacy has still not been scrutinized by any external reviews. Over coming years, persistent congressional "undersight" could threaten the delicate balance between the Fed's independence and its public accountability. Potential approaches to restoring that balance could include strengthened reporting requirements, secured access to sensitive information, and external reviews by congressional watchdogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The SALUS Healthy Cities Design Congress 2023, saw a panel of industry experts share their views on planning deregulation and the Campaign for Healthy Homes, the panel included: Dr Rosalie Callway, Town and Country Planning Association; Prof Ben Clifford, University College London; Steve Morten, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities; Gwyn Roberts, BRE and Cllr Jane Corbett, Everton. The panel brought perspectives from government, private sector, academia and local government. Whilst views varied about the future of planning and building regulation in England, panellists recognised the value of the Healthy Homes campaign in highlighting how government changes have undermined health and the future delivery of healthy and affordable homes. They touched on many factors, including housing budgets, resource allocation, weak mechanisms of accountability, as well as opportunities for change within the current political climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual meetings are widespread in organizations despite being perceived as fatiguing; a phenomenon also known as Zoom fatigue. Research suggests that Zoom fatigue is stronger when the camera is on, potentially influencing individuals to conform to majority opinions during professional online meetings. Two preregistered studies were conducted to explore the relationships between camera use, Zoom fatigue, social presence, and conformity. Study 1 involved 287 participants describing a professional online meeting in terms of the content discussed as well as the study variables. Study 2 involved 64 participants in an experimentally manipulated online meeting (camera on vs. off), focusing on a personnel selection task. We measured how many times participants changed their answers to match the majority and how this was related to Zoom fatigue and self-reported conformity. Results from both studies indicated that camera use was not related to either conformity or Zoom fatigue. Despite not finding the presumed mediation effect, the studies showed a clear link between fatigue and conformity. The results explain the emergence of conformity in online meetings and provide practical information for the design of video conferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing the drastic changes in the current international society, thinking and looking into the future picture is becoming a new starting point and foothold for design innovation. Considering that, in this report, the International Conference on Design Futures (ICDF) as a durational event was analyzed from the aspects of its concept, pattern, and contribution to design and futures. Distributed evolution concept is applied to knowledge building and flows in the conference for shaping the design futures ecosystem. The dynamic process of knowledge-action networks enables the community to connect more stakeholders and achieve sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The special triple issue dedicated to 'The Future of Futures Thinking in Design Education' is edited for a dialogue between futures studies and design education. The conversations began with the International Conference on Design Futures in 2020 and continue to be ongoing. In volume I, we introduce the role of futures thinking in design education with short openings by each of us, followed by a summary of the articles, essays, and report. Our objective is to transform the present design education to focus on long-term issues rather than just short-term ones, and highlight the futures literacy in shaping the design abilities to deal with uncertain futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Administrative law is under attack, with the Supreme Court reviving, expanding, and creating doctrines that limit the authority and autonomy wielded by regulatory agencies. This anti-administrative turn is particularly alarming for financial regulation, which already faces enormous challenges stemming from the dynamism of modern finance, its growing complexity, and fundamental contestability. Yet that does not mean that defending the current regime is the optimal response. The complexity and dynamism of modern finance also undercut the efficacy of established administrative procedures. And the panoply of financial regulators with unclear and overlapping jurisdictional bounds only adds to the challenge. Both these procedural and structural challenges put greater pressure on Congress to act, but partisanship and other challenges are making such action more challenging than ever. This Article tackles the question of how to enhance the willingness and capacity of even a reluctant Congress to engage in the legislation and oversight that the current judiciary is demanding. It argues that having Congress pre-commit to convening congressional commissions every ten years to survey the changing landscape, identify emerging threats, and propose reforms when appropriate could go a long way in enhancing Congress’s capacity to act and serve as a prompt to such action. Like administrative agencies, commissions can be used to harness the specialized insights of experts on a range of technocratic policy issues. They can also incorporate more diverse and independent perspectives on these issues, connect them to broader questions about the role of finance in society, and help galvanize the public and political will needed to bring about regulatory reform. Moreover, unlike administrative agencies, commissions can provide ex ante guidance that informs the political process, enabling a different and complementary way to combine public participation, expert analysis, and congressional oversight. Looking to the historical use of commissions in finance and other domains as a guide, the Article shows how institutionalizing decennial commissions can help enhance both the quality and legitimacy of financial regulation. Commissions are no magic bullet, but they could constitute a useful, if modest, step in efforts to enhance the institutional design of Congress within the constitutionally prescribed parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The aim was to comprehensively identify published research evaluating continuing medical education conferences, to search for validated tools and perform a content analysis to identify the relevant domains for conference evaluation. Methods: We used scoping review methodology and searched MEDLINE® for relevant English or French literature published between 2008 and 2022 (last search June 3, 2022). Original research (including randomized controlled trials, non-randomized studies, cohort, mixed-methods, qualitative studies, and editorial pieces) where investigators described impact, experience, or motivations related to conference attendance were eligible. Citations were assessed in triplicate, and data extracted in duplicate. Results: Eighty-three studies were included, 69 (83%) of which were surveys or interview based, with the majority conducted at the end of or following conference conclusion. Of the 74 tools identified, only one was validated and was narrowly focused on a specific conference component. A total of 620 items were extracted and categorized into 4 a priori suggested domains (engagement-networking, education-learning, impact, scholarship), and an additional 4 identified through content analysis (value-satisfaction, logistics, equity-diversity-inclusivity, career influences). Time trends were evident, including the absence of items related to equity-diversity-inclusivity prior to 2019, and a focus on logistics, particularly technology and virtual conferences, since 2020. Conclusions: This study identified 8 major domains relevant for continuing medical education conference evaluation. This work is of immediate value to individuals and organizations seeking to either design or evaluate a conference and represents a critical step in the development of a standardized tool for conference evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The document is a contribution to the memorial ceremony of Lars Brink, a renowned physicist known for his breakthrough works. The author, Jean Tran Thanh Van, highlights Lars' contributions to promoting a better understanding between scientists and non-scientists, particularly in emerging countries like Vietnam. Lars played a crucial role in organizing conferences that emphasized the importance of basic science and international dialogue for societal development and peace. The author expresses gratitude for Lars' dedication, spirit, and endearing personality, emphasizing his impact on the scientific community. [Extracted from the article]

Scientific conferences play an important role in advancing research, scholarship, and the careers of emerging scientists. The COVID‐19 pandemic offered meeting organizers and researchers alike an opportunity to reimagine what scientific conferences could look like. Virtual conferences can increase inclusivity and accessibility while decreasing costs and carbon emissions. However, it is generally perceived that the digital world fails to adequately recapitulate many of the benefits of in‐person face‐to‐face interactions; these include socializing, and collaborative environments that can forge new research directions and provide critical career development opportunities. On November 15 and 16, 2022, researchers, representatives from diverse scientific conference organizations, leaders in virtual platform technologies, and innovators in conference design gathered online for the Open Access Keystone eSymposium "Reimagining Scientific Conferences." The meeting focused on how conference organizers can leverage lessons from the pandemic and emerging virtual platforms to engage new audiences, rethink strategies for scientific exchange, and decrease the carbon footprint of in‐person events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bajo Palabra: Journal of Philosophy is the property of Bajo Palabra: Journal of Philosophy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 1980, Frigidaire Australia launched an advertising campaign in popular women's magazines calling for readers' opinions on refrigerator design. Soon after, Frigidaire held the Group 200 Women's Design Conference in Sydney, leading to the release of the G2 refrigerator in 1981, which was promoted as being "designed" by the women involved in this market research. This example offers insights into evolving public understandings of design in mainstream Australia in the early 1980s. It also demonstrates the troubled position of design in relation to the maturing second-wave feminist movement, and particularly amid feminist debates regarding domestic labor. Furthermore, Frigidaire's marketing strategy can be read as an example of the emergent neoliberalization of design in the 1980s. The article finds that, despite Frigidaire's marketing rhetoric, the women participants had little agency over the G2's design. The politics of identity (in this case, a subtle form of feminist agency) was effectively co-opted by capital to encourage consumption. Nonetheless, the Women's Design Conference was meaningful in a discrete sense, as a moment in time when a group of women (mostly middle-aged "homemakers") recognized their own domestic knowledge as design expertise. This may be the only saving grace from what was otherwise a thoroughly unambitious attempt to incorporate women's knowledge into product design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, state and local governments receive over $700 billion annually in federal grants, yet relatively little is known about how Congress designs these programs. I formalize a theory of congressional bargaining over grants and test the theory using an original dataset of Senate amendments. The results suggest that congressional rules and political considerations shape, and at times distort, federal grant programs. While grant programs may be intended to improve education or provide health care, I find that members of Congress treat these programs as opportunities to procure more funding for their constituents. Further, I show how coalitions are shaped by the status quo policy and the distribution of population, poverty, and other demographic characteristics across states. These results have important implications for our understanding of the policymaking process and who benefits from federal programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how activist-oriented BIPOC youth designed an annual conference rooted in youth culture and social justice. As a participant-observer, I analyze how these youth co-constructed a teaching and learning curriculum centered on young people's identities, epistemologies, and radical imaginings. The process of the youth leaders developing criteria for evaluating proposal submissions for this conference reveals how young people understand and co-construct pedagogical ideas that are socially, culturally, and critically relevant for their daily lives and futures. By examining youth-developed approaches to community-based learning, this study expands on theories of youth voice and youth civic literacies by revealing how young people engage in and disrupt educational practices and how authentic, critical approaches to youth-centered learning are developed in a collective third space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conference participation and presentation are core practices in research and professional communities. For individual participants they are places to learn about and share recent research findings and emerging practices, and to meet and network with colleagues. Extensive lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic meant that formerly face-to-face conferences had to rapidly move online, resulting in the development of hastily designed emergency remote conferences which were mostly unable to benefit from the knowledge held by organisers and researchers of pre-pandemic online conferences. As a result, many online conferences from 2020 were unable to make creative and effective use of readily available technologies to support the full range of formal and informal interactions needed to support participant and community level learning experiences during the conference. This article discusses this phenomenon and also describes a range of more creative and flexible online conference designs from the pandemic period that look well beyond the emergency remote conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time constant equilibration reduction (TICER) is a local model reduction method based on Gaussian elimination for RC networks which was introduced in Sheehan (1999 IEEE/ACM international conference on computer-aided design. Digest of technical papers (Cat. No.99CH37051), pp 200–203, 1999). The main idea of TICER is selectively removing the non-port nodes of the circuits to produce a smaller RC circuit. Since proposed, TICER has been widely used in the electronic engineering, and lots of practices validate its reliability and robustness. It is a practical method to meet the needs of reduction and can produce a realizable RC circuit with good accuracy, and this is the reason why TICER has been used until now. Later, many scholars proposed RC-realizable reduction methods based on TICER. Quite surprisingly, as far as the authors know, there exists no rigorous analysis on this simple but wonderful method in the literature. In this short communication, we prove the optimal first-order asymptotic accuracy of TICER and present numerical evidences to validate our theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the third chapter, Tania Messell traces Peter Muller-Munk as an émigré design practitioner in the US and the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design's (ICSID) transnational network. Graph The book, I International Design Organizations: Histories, Legacies and Values i , is a well-crafted edition of the papers of the conference of the same name held in Brighton in 2017. The deeper we dug, we came across richer material, and our local story gradually turned into a history of interactions of international design networks.[1] Our case revealed both the political dimension of the world design history and the interconnectedness of national design histories. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación is the property of Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseno y Comunicacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This special collection contains articles from participants in the 7th International Designs for Learning Conference – Remediation of Learning. The focus of the conference and the special collection is on current changes in the designs of information and knowledge representations and their consequences on how we understand and evaluate learning and communication. The conference was held in May 2021 and due to the pandemic it was run digitally through Zoom. A total of 43 abstracts were submitted, and all delegates were invited to submit a full paper to the Designs for Learning Journal. Five articles were finally included in the special collection and are presented below, along with an acknowledgement of the abstracts presented during the conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the 2019 and 2021 International Conference on Environmental Psychology, discussions were held on the future of conferences in light of the enormous greenhouse gas emissions and inequities associated with conference travel. In this manuscript, we provide an early career researcher (ECR) perspective on this discussion. We argue that travel-intensive conference practices damage both the environment and our credibility as a discipline, conflict with the intrinsic values and motivations of our discipline, and are inequitable. As such, they must change. This change can be achieved by moving toward virtual and hybrid conferences, which can reduce researchers' carbon footprints and promote equity, if employed carefully and with informal exchange as a priority. By acting collectively and with the support of institutional change, we can adapt conference travel norms in our field. To investigate whether our arguments correspond to views in the wider community of ECRs within environmental psychology, we conducted a community case study. By leveraging our professional networks and directly contacting researchers in countries underrepresented in those networks, we recruited 117 ECRs in 32 countries for an online survey in February 2022. The surveyed ECRs supported a change in conference travel practices, including flying less, and perceived the number of researchers wanting to reduce their travel emissions to be growing. Thirteen percent of respondents had even considered leaving academia due to travel requirements. Concerning alternative conference formats, a mixed picture emerged. Overall, participants had slightly negative evaluations of virtual conferences, but expected them to improve within the next 5 years. However, ECRs with health issues, facing visa challenges, on low funding, living in remote areas, with caretaking obligations or facing travel restrictions due to COVID-19 expected a switch toward virtual or hybrid conferences to positively affect their groups. Participants were divided about their ability to build professional relationships in virtual settings, but believed that maintaining relationships virtually is possible. We conclude by arguing that the concerns of ECRs in environmental psychology about current and alternative conference practices must be taken seriously. We call on our community to work on collective solutions and less travel-intensive conference designs using participatory methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a letter from the president of the Design Management Institute (DMI) discussing the recent dmi:Diversity in Design Conference. The conference was held at an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) for the first time and included a private session for students from various universities. The students had the opportunity to interact with accomplished executives and gain insights from designers of different cultures, ages, and genders. The president also mentions the launch of DMI's 50th Anniversary website and encourages readers to make contributions to support the organization's future. [Extracted from the article]

The future growth of the conference industry will depend on how well it understands the demographic trends influencing it. As members of Generation Z reach adulthood and become a target market for the conference industry, an understanding of their motivations, needs, and expectations is crucial. To date, this topic has received limited research attention. Targeting Chinese students from Generation Z, this study used an online survey to examine their motivations for conference attendance and their expectations with regards to conference design. China is an emerging market with huge conference potential. The key findings show that: 1) destination characteristics and educational and professional opportunities are important motivators for China's Generation Z to attend a conference; 2) edutainment, interactivity, short sessions, use of technology, and sustainability practices are expected to be implemented into event design; and 3) face-to-face, website and e-mail are the preferred communication channels with the conference organizer and other conference participants. Although, for the most part, the characteristics of Generation Z in China seem to be aligned with Generation Z elsewhere, in the conference sector context it is important to acknowledge and appreciate the country-specific nuances in Generation Z preferences, and conference organizers must acknowledge and adapt to these preferences. This research will assist the conference industry to make necessary adjustments to existing products and services, and to identify new opportunities to develop products and services that will resonate with this new market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geography, like many other disciplines, is reckoning with the carbon intensity of its practices and rethinking how activities such as annual meetings are held. The Climate Action Task Force of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), for example, was set up in 2019 and seeks to transform the annual conference in light of environmental justice concerns. Mirroring shifts in geographic practice across the globe, these efforts point to a need to understand how new opportunities for knowledge production, such as online events, can operate effectively. In this paper, we offer suggestions for best practice in virtual spaces arising from our Material Life of Time conference held in March 2021, a two‐day global event that ran synchronously across 15 time zones. Given concerns about lack of opportunities for informal exchanges at virtual conferences, or the 'coffee break problem', we designed the event to focus particularly on opportunities for conviviality. This was accomplished through a focus on three key design issues: the spatial, the temporal, and the social. We review previous work on the benefits and drawbacks of synchronous and asynchronous online conference methods and the kinds of geographic communities they might support. We then describe our design approach and reflect on its effectiveness via a variety of feedback materials. We show that our design enabled high delegate satisfaction, a sense of conviviality, and strong connections with new colleagues. However, we also discuss the problems with attendance levels and external commitments that hampered shared time together. We thus call for collective efforts to support the 'event time' of online meetings, rather than expectations to fit them around everyday tasks. Even so, our results suggest that synchronous online events need not result in geographical exclusions linked to time‐zone differences, and we outline further recommendations for reworking the spacetimes of the conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an editorial from InfoDesign magazine, which presents a special edition with selected works for the 11th International Congress of Information Design (CIDI 2023) and the 11th National Congress of Scientific Initiation in Information Design (CONGIC 2023). CIDI completes 20 years and has established itself as a nationally and internationally renowned event, promoting and disseminating Information Design research. The special edition of the magazine presents works on topics such as health, education, research methodology, and graphic memory. The objective is to enrich the academic and professional community. [Extracted from the article]

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced a change in the way people work, and the location that they work from. The impact has caused significant disruption to education, the work environment and how social interactions take place. Online user habits have also changed due to lockdown restrictions and virtual conferencing software has become a vital cog in team communication. In result, a spate in software solutions have emerged in order to support the challenges of remote learning and working. The conferencing software landscape is now a core communication solution for company-wide interaction, team discussions, screen sharing and face-to-face contact. Yet the number of existing platforms is diverse. In this article, a systematic literature review investigation on virtual conferencing is presented. As output from the analysis, 67 key features and 74 obstacles users experience when interacting with virtual conferencing technologies are identified from 60 related open-source journal articles from 5 digital library repositories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, users of the display system designed for the conference hall were evaluated as an example of a temporary space marking system for vaccination at a COVID-19 vaccination center in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province.Unlike ordinary space, temporary space display systems organize space on a limited schedule, so it is necessary to properly place and communicate information about space and processes in the display design to users. Therefore, a paper description manual, a wall display panel, and a floor path tape were provided and deployed to users of the inoculation session. The results of user evaluations show that for specific users over 60 years of age, a file (information display system) that conveys the overall information about the space and process is effective for vaccination. This result is expected to serve as a reference to how and how the display system will be installed in a temporary space in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthy City Design International congress 2021 was a timely conference in advance of COP26 providing strategic guidance, evidence, and commentary for how cities can lead design for green, fair, inclusive cities in the post COVID recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effective implementation of quantization depends not only on the specific task but also on the hardware resources. This article presents a hardware-aware customized quantization method for convolutional neural networks. We propose a learnable parameter soft clipping full integer quantization (LSFQ), which includes weight and activation quantization with the learnable clipping parameters. Moreover, the LSFQ accelerator architecture is customized on the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) platform to verify the hardware awareness of our method, in which DSP48E2 is designed to realize the parallel computation of six low-bit integer multiplications. The results showed that the accuracy loss of LSFQ is less than 1% compared with the full-precision models including VGG7, mobile-net v2 in CIFAR10, and CIFAR100. An LSFQ accelerator was demonstrated at the 57th IEEE/ACM Design Automation Conference System Design Contest (DAC-SDC) and won the championship at the FPGA track. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assurance of patient safety in emergency general surgery remains challenging due to the patients' high-risk underlying conditions and the wide variability in emergency surgical care provided around the globe. The authors of this article convened as an expert panel on patient safety in surgery at the 8th International Conference of the World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) in Edinburgh, Scotland, on September 7–10, 2021. This review article represents the proceedings from the expert panel discussions at the WSES congress and was designed to provide an international perspective on optimizing teamwork and non-technical skills in emergency general surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text gives a glimpse of a hitherto unknown design discourse during the Cold War - from both sides of the Iron Curtain - by exploring the 1975 Congress of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), held in Moscow. Sweden sent a big delegation to Russia. More than forty of the small country's top designers and influencers participated, which was more than twice as many as usual to these international design congresses. Thanks to reactions published about the events in journals on design in Sweden and in the Soviet Union, archival material, and the author's own interviews with the delegates from Sweden who participated in Moscow, as well as one-off exclusive backstage witnesses from the local staff of the host organization during the ongoing congress, Moscow 1975 is experienced through the eyes of contemporary witnesses. The essay gives new insights into the world congress in design and illustrates the international atmosphere during the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hoarding disorder is a surprisingly common problem which impacts on most areas of life. People who hoard typically have multiple agencies involved in their care due to the complex health and safety impact and risks associated with hoarding. 'Treatment' involves finding ways of supporting discarding large amounts, typically underpinned by CBT principles. We evaluated the impact and outcomes of a conference designed to boost professionals' confidence and understanding in working with hoarding problems, both individually and with other agencies with a view to improving inter-agency service provision. Changes in professionals' confidence and understanding were evaluated immediately before and after the conference. Conference participants' qualitative responses related to service improvements were analysed using content analysis. People with personal experience of hoarding issues subsequently participated in a focus group where the results of the conference were presented. These data were analysed using thematic analysis. Confidence and understanding in working with hoarding problems substantially increased from pre- to post-conference. Professionals identified a range of possible improvements, most commonly working more closely and improving communication with other agencies. People with personal experience suggested improvements across three over-arching themes: developing an improved understanding of hoarding, the need for improved resources, and improved multi-agency working. A multi-agency conference increased confidence and understanding in professionals working with hoarding problems, and improvements specified by both people with personal experience and professionals provide a useful guide to service improvement. Results provide a framework in which CBT approaches should be embedded. Key learning aims: (1) To assess the effectiveness of a multi-agency hoarding conference at improving understanding and confidence in working with hoarding problems. (2) To explore professionals' perceptions of improvements to multi-agency service provision. (3) To explore perceptions of improvements that could be made to multi-agency service provision from people with personal experience of hoarding problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a Group Relations Conference (GRC) that took place in 2017 in Dublin Ireland, directed by Simon Western and hosted by Irish Group Relations Organisation (IGRO). It was motivated by a desire to experiment with the conference design so that it better reflected today's organisations and their wider influencing contexts. To achieve this, we also needed to re-think the style and disposition of the conference leadership. Our intention was to find a way of re-creating some of the radical changes taking place in organisations and society due to the rise of the network society (Castell's 2000) and our age of 'Precarious Interdependence' (Western 2020). With this in mind, IGRO invited Simon Western to be conference director and worked with him to design a conference informed by his Eco-Leadership and Analytic-Network frames of thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Clemson University Academy of Nursing Excellence in Healthcare Design presented their 2021 virtual conference entitled, I Local to Global - Research, Design and Solutions i . The conference was informative and highlighted needed interdisciplinary collaboration between nursing and architecture to design healthcare environments that impact health outcomes. He examined the critical roles that nurses and other allied health professionals play in helping architects understand how to design safe, effective, and functional patient- and family-centered healthcare environments. With AI growing in healthcare, the human interaction with AI can translate to clinical decision support, assisted robotic surgery, electronic health records, medication management, image analysis, and many other applications. [Extracted from the article]