Speaker’s Bureau connects industry and academia
An idea that was sparked at a technology summit last fall is bringing the STEM industry to the classroom.
David Batcheller, president and COO of Appareo, initiated the Speaker’s Bureau to bring speakers who are active in the industry into university classrooms.
The idea is that if a college professor wants to bring a speaker in for a certain topic, they can reach out to the Speaker’s Bureau and they will promptly connect you with a speaker, and arrange a talk. Similarly, if someone in the industry has something cool they are working on that could make for an interesting talk, they can reach out to professors with the potential of presenting their work to students.
To start, they are focusing on tech fields; but ultimately, Batcheller said, “the scope is everything.”
MSUM’s CSIS Department has already invited industry leaders to campus to visit with students. Annie Wood, assistant director for communications and student engagement at the CMU, will be leaving MSUM to work at Emerging Prairie, where she will coordinate the Speaker’s Bureau and create and develop a Community Activities Office.