The Faculty of Information and Communication Studies (FICS) held its first quarter MeetUps of 2023 on February 17, 2023 via Zoom. Eleven administrative staff, research assistants and REPS attended the event that aimed to serve as a space for knowledge and skills sharing, as well as a platform for “kumustahan” among colleagues. FICS MeetUPs is a quarterly activity aimed to empower the staff through knowledge-sharing and skills development.
Junior Research Associates Patricia Calora and Maine Basan, and University Extension Associate Yrelle Lleva served as the resource speakers for the MeetUPs this quarter. They discussed “Event Planning and Coordination: Continuity Management of UPOU FICS Extension Activities”. They aimed to share knowledge in planning and coordination before, during, and after events. Continuity management enables transfer of tacit and explicit knowledge, minimizes the risk of knowledge loss, and ensures the minimum amount of change.
Patricia Calora discussed the pre-event preparation and coordination: identification of the resource person, preparation of event materials, point persons for technical preparations, technical rehearsal, etc. “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” According to her, it’s important to anticipate what could go wrong and plan accordingly. 
Yrelle Lleva discussed the event proper coordination. She walked through the differences between face-to-face event preparations vs online webinar events preparations, and the roles and functions of each individual in the team. “It is important to make sure that everyone knows their specific tasks to ensure a smooth flowing program,” she stated.
Maine Basan demonstrated some of the post-events tasks like the creation and activation of the evaluation form, automated certificates distribution using Autocrat, and what templates are used for post-evaluation. She showed some of the necessary google sheet formulas that can be copied and pasted by the team to automate form results. Autocrat can help organizers avoid the exhausting process of manually sending certificates. “Automating these processes helps us save energy and time.”
The three resource speakers specifically chose the topic “Continuity Management” to share their experiences in serving as overall coordinators of different FICS Activities like Masterclass, FICS MeetUPs, Student Orientation, Recognition and Graduation, etc. With this, they hope to facilitate an easier preparation process for events, while giving everyone an idea of how each role is interconnected with another, thus showing that teamwork equals success.
Written by Maine Basan
Edited by Yrelle Lleva
Contributed by the UPOU Faculty of Information and Communication Studies
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