Year
1992
Abstract
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recognizes the importance of communication with external groups to win public confidence in its decision making and environmental policy implementation. DOE also recognizes it's important to communicate and share information internally to effectively and efficiently carry out its environmental restoration mission, ultimately improving public confidence too. This recognition for improved internal communications resulted in the development of Technology Information Exchange Workshops (TIE) under DOE's Office of Environmental Restoration (ER). The purpose of the workshops is contained in their theme, \"Using Today's Technologies Better.\" These workshops promote an ongoing process of site-to-site technical \"hands on\" communications and sharing of lessons learned among environmental restoration field personnel and others who actually do the work to promote more effective use of technologies. That is, the workshops create and strengthen technology \"ties\" between the sites. These workshops have resulted in positive comments from the participants and much enthusiasm to continue them. Participants have said the TIE workshops are an ideal forum to establish \"tie's,\" make beneficial contacts, and gain environmental restoration program cost savings from site-to-site collaboration on similar projects. Our involvement with TIE workshops has been working with DOE to design and develop them, as well as facilitate them. Our paper will discuss what we've learned about effective meeting design from our involvement with the TIB workshops, and how we designed the format of the TIE workshops to meet DOE's goal of improving technology information exchange. We'll discuss the results of workshop evaluations and whether or not our workshop designs met their purposes. We'll also discuss specific examples of how the workshops have improved technology information exchange for environmental restoration.