This September’s STEAM Exchange was a rewarding night full of collaborative connections! This month’s theme was Speed Collaborations, making for a fun and fast event through which academics were able to network with one another.

As mentioned above, the evening was based around quick connections made through a speed dating-like process. Participants had 90 seconds to converse with the person sitting across the table from them before the timer when off. At this point, they would then move down the table and meet someone new. Whether they used the fun questions provided as ice breakers, such as “If you could teach every human being one thing, what would it be?”, or dove right into conversation about their fields of study and research, there was a constant buzz between colleagues the entire night.

After 20 rounds of this energetic activity, the event was wrapped up with a game of Signature Bingo. This game consists of 25 squares, each filled with a different trait or skill, such as “Has written a book” or “Has worked with kindergarten teachers”. The goal for participants was to converse and find people who possessed the listed traits on their board, have them sign off in the correlating square and try to get five squares in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally. What comes after that? BINGO! Aka the Brilliant Intellectual Networking Going On!

Though the engaging evening had to come to an end, STEAM Exchange will be back next month with more great ways to learn about what other scholars and academics are doing and what possible connections could be made. Be on the lookout for information about next month’s STEAM Exchange!