Together with our partners from the Fraunhofer ISE and the Fraunhofer IEE we held an international online seminar about “The Integration of Solar and Wind Energy in the Grid Network”. In this interview our colleague Lena Kurtz talks about her experience.
How was your impression?
This Online-Session was a very motivating joint project created from a strong collaboration between two universities, two Fraunhofer Institutes and the Fraunhofer Academy. And we were very happy to welcome two excellent speakers in the field of renewable energies.
What did you like the most about this session?
The field of Renewable Energies is not only interesting but also highly important. Therefore I enjoyed that we were able to reach almost 200 people from around the world. It was also great to see that people came from different backgrounds and were very interested in exchanging opinions and asking questions to our speakers.
You were the host of this online session. Was it any different to being a “normal” host?
Usually as a host or moderator you might get to know people personally before the session starts. Also, you have a very direct communication and feedback during trainings or sessions. In an Online-Session this aspect is reduced. Nevertheless by interactive elements such as polls, questions and answers and the chat, you can still communicate very well. And in an online session it is much easier to bring together such a large target group from all over the world for just 1 or 2 hours.
What is important to take into consideration when you organize an international Webinar?
Many people forget about the timing although it is highly important. We opted for a 90 min. session starting at 2pm because we thought this would be a reasonable time which is suitable for the American, the European and the Asian time schedule.
Furthermore it is important to choose the right tool. It should be an online tool which is easy to use for everyone and very stable in the connection. And, of course, teamwork. In our case we had two speakers, two program coordinators who were also taking care of the chat and me as a host involved.
Do you think Corona will have an impact on how we communicate in the future?
I think communication is already changing. In my opinion Covid-19 is kind of a catalyst of an already existing tendency.
Lena Barahona ist seit 2022 Stellevertretende Leiterin der Fraunhofer Academy. Außerdem ist sie für die Themenbereiche Didaktik und Qualitätsmanagement an der Fraunhofer Academy zuständig und leitet das Weiterbildungsprogramm „Certified Scientific Trainer*in“.
Frau Barahona studierte Pädagogik, Psychologie und Kommunikationswissenschaft an der LMU München und der Universidad Europea de Madrid. Vor Fraunhofer arbeitete sie knapp 10 Jahre am Klinikum der Universität München (LMU). Dort war sie für Koordination eines Weiterbildungsstudiengangs für den lateinamerikanischen Raum und für die stellvertretende Arbeitsgruppenleitung im Bereich Teaching verantwortlich. Auch leitete sie ein internationales Train-the-Trainer Programm.
Seit 2014 ist Frau Barahona außerdem als freie Trainerin und Coach tätig.