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hi
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my name is rebecca tower and i'm the
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director of executive education here at
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the university of san francisco
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it has been our great pleasure over the
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last 10 plus years
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to host literally thousands of people
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from all over the globe
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to come here visit us in san francisco
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and immerse themselves in all things
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silicon valley.
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whether that's learning entrepreneurship
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or innovation
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leadership business analytics digital
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transformation or many other topics.
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this was up until just a few months ago
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when i'm sure like for most of us
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our lives changed - that being said here
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at the university of san francisco in
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our executive department
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we decided we'd practice a little bit of
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what we preached so we've jumped in and
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over the last
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several months we've been creating
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testing honing
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recreating different versions and
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different formats of programs
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to come up with what we believe is the
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most engaging
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and inspiring immersive programs
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available in the virtues
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as such it is my great pleasure to
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announce today that we are launching
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a new program in business analytics and
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we are joined today
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by one of our partners from durham
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university neil armstrong
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he is the senior manager of
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international engagement and he's going
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to tell us a little bit about
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what this new program was like and what
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it was like for the participants
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so let's tune in and hear what neil has
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to say
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my name is neil armstrong bit like the
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astronaut so uh pretty famous there
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and i'm from durham university business
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school
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which is based in the uk it's in the
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northeast of um of the uk so just on the
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on the north sea
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um we are an international business
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school
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we've been doing a series of programs
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with you guys for a number of years
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um where you know we've been out and and
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you've
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delivered programs to our students i
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think one of the things that we
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we really value um has been the
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i think the personal relationship um
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rebecca that we've had
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so i've just really started working with
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with yourself uh
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this year but i know a number of my
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colleagues have been out they've met
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with you students have been out they've
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met with you
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really really enjoyed the the experience
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the
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uh and the quality of the the delivery
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that we that we get from you and that's
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why we've consistently been a
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long-term partner with uh university of
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san francisco
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um i think one of the great things that
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that we've done together
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as to institutions as two organizations
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has been massively adapted to this
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circumstance
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so we intentionally were hoping to do to
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do that but
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actually what we did is we sat back and
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we looked at that though how can we make
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this
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program work online and
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um you know for those people who are
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probably sitting watching
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uh watching this interview that took a
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lot of time i think between um yourself
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and myself rebecca around
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and the one and the wider teams across
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both business schools
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um around bringing that to into place
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discussing what it would look like the
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structure bringing in the academic team
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looking at all the assessment
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methodology how that would be done
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online how we would do that with monitor
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students preparing students
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there was an awful lot of uh activity
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went
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went into to making this happen and
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what i felt really worked was how the
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team working
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went between the two organizations not
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always easy to bring
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two organizations together but i think
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what what happened was the willingness
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of both teams to
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make things happen um to go out of their
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way to
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um really kind of push things forward
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many of our students were from the uh
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from china
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um so we had a split we uh uh some
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students who were
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in the far east and some students who
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are in the uk
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and you put together a fantastic program
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that allowed us to adapt to different
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time zones
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so i know that you guys are working till
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late in the night
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we were getting up at 12 a.m um
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uk time all to try and just kind of
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schedule these things and make these
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things happen and it led to what i
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feel was a really great experience which
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combined
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um some new content for our students
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around um you know the use of artificial
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intelligence
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and machine learning and and a whole
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range of areas like that but also
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around how we communicate data as well
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and which was an important
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important aspect but it was also the
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input of some of the the
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corporate relationships and the business
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relationships that you've got there
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um usf the
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that really made a difference and kind
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of contextualized a lot of the
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learning for our students and they
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really got a massive amount out of it
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and i think the the feedback from
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students and certainly when we spoke to
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them
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has been good it's been really positive
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that they've really appreciated that
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together we've tried to rescue a
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situation that was was out of our hands
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um you know they've had that chance to
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find out about the the cultural aspects
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of being over there know you did some
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virtual tours for them as well
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so they could get a feel of what it
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would have actually been like to have
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been there
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i think they really valued the content
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um
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um significantly around um being taught
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through um different different lecturers
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from a different location but i think
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what they also really value and what
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came back was the
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the input of the companies um
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and looking at how data is utilized
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within their organization
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and they were given some real
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significant challenges
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and posed some really difficult uh
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questions
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um that really um
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kind of made them think and i think with
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the structure of the program as well
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obviously we worked together to make
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sure that they could do
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an assessment at the end and we had them
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do group presentations
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and obviously doing group presentations
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online is not something you would
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normally do
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but in an environment like we are now
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and what we will have going forward over
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the
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foreseeable future where you know i
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think we'll do
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less international travel probably
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because we've been able to do this and
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we'll do more
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um digital collaboration i think that
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was a really good
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way for them to experience what it's
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going to be like to
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work in business into the future and i
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think they really value that opportunity
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they could see the
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the benefit of doing some of that for
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their future career in their own
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future employability
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i think absolutely absolutely i i think
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the
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um i think the ability to to have that
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hybrid element
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you know so some virtual something in in
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person
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some virtual i think it would i think if
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we can
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if we could do a pure virtual option i
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think we would
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equally as well um so you know
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you know potentially working with you
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well working with you guys again
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um will be they may be the option that
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we have to do virtual but i would
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certainly consider looking at i
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definitely
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oh i think i'd just like to say i think
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that if any anybody would like to work
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directly with
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the university of san francisco the
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executive development team and yourself
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rebecca
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i'd highly encourage them to do so um i
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just think
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the the um the ease of working
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um with all of you um i think the
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the the attitude and just the the
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openness and friendliness and the will
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it
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the willingness to um adapt to
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the the change in circumstances has has
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been brilliant and
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and to all of the team as well um you
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know my main reference to obviously um
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cynthia who we
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work with and vijay from the academic
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side of things as well
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you know i had the opportunity to to
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listen to um bj's talk on
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storytelling with data and i really
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enjoyed that and i learned
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an awful lot from that i know our
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students did so i think just in terms of
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the
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the pure quality of staff the quality of
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delivery uh
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and in the way in which you we work
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together if anybody want to do
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to do this kind of work with you i'd
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highly encourage them to do so
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and if anybody would want to speak to me
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about the quality of that directly then
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they're more than willing to do so as
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well