Conferences

One Day Workshop

Making a difference with
‘Low Impact’ Group Support

A workshop to review applications

This one day workshop provided the opportunity to explore the uses of ‘low impact’ group support systems. There is an increasing interest, at theoretical and practical levels, in methods of working with groups. An extensive literature has developed concerned with the use of aids and methods of supporting groups; one of these aids – ‘low impact’ group support – is based on handset technology.

‘Low impact’ group support was the focus of the workshop which aimed to review and evaluate some applications. One of the sessions investigated the use of group support to aid ‘Problem Structuring’ while others included Decision Making, Organisational Learning, Focus Group work, Health Guidelines Development and Group Interactive Video.

The workshop programme
	9.45 Registration and coffee 10.00 Introductions and demonstration of ‘low impact’ GSSs Co-chairs: Tony Gear ( University of Glamorgan) and Martin Read ( University of Portsmouth) 10.15    Problem Structuring with Groups Dr Alberto Franco, Warwick Business School 11.00 Application to teaching undergraduate pharmacists Dr Adrian Hunt, University of Portsmouth 11.45 Clinical guideline development for National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Sam Groves, University of Glamorgan   Informal lunch including a group based, multi-criteria wine tasting session 1.30 ‘Group enquiry’ for Organisational Learning Russ Vince, Professor of Organisational Behaviour and HRM, University of Hull 2.15 Focus group application – Evaluating breakfast cereals Barry Davies, Professor of Marketing, University of Gloucester 3.00 Group interactive video Steve Forster, Eon Media Limited, Hull 3.45 Discussion and conclusion

The workshop was held at The OR Society’s training suite in Birmingham on 2 February 2006.