"Maximizing Impact" Pre-conference Workshop Ideal for Advanced Practitioners

When it comes to managing a portfolio of programs, do you know what really works to ensure they will have the most impact for building a tech-based economy? "Maximizing Impact: Evaluating Science and Technology Programs," one of four full-day pre-conference workshops to be held at SSTI's 9th Annual conference on Oct. 19-21, 2005, strives to answer the question.

Designed for those advanced in the field, this engaging workshop will examine the programmatic and political effectiveness of different evaluation models, dissecting applied evaluation tools to assess their replicability across states and regions. One of several objectives for the day is to give attendees the evaluation research design tools they need for building sophisticated evaluations. The session will focus on:

• mapping organizational missions and goals to evaluation design;
• selected methods such as surveys, case studies, econometric models, Social Network Analysis, bibliometrics and expert judgment;
• causality and attribution; and,
• lessons learned.

Upon completion of the workshop, attendees will be equipped to identify the appropriate indicators for a given intervention, choose the appropriate method or methods for the evaluation, address causality and attribution; and effectively communicate the analysis and results to different stakeholders.

Presenters include Norman Chagnon, staff director of Ohio's Third Frontier Commission, Catherine Renault, program manager of RTI International's Center for Technology Applications, and Tab Wilkins, director of regional and technical services for the Washington Technology Center.

The full session description for "Maximizing Impact: Evaluating Science & Technology Programs," complete conference agenda, and registration information are available through the 2005 SSTI Conference website: http://www.ssti.org/Conf05/preconference.htm