March 1-2, 2017, Foresight held a two-day training for a Canadian University technology transfer office staff on marketing. Like many universities, this university has a large portfolio of technologies for which they are seeking more cost-efficient and effective marketing. The Foresight trainers Phyllis Speser, J.D., Ph.D. R.T.T.P., founder and Vice Chair of the Board, and Konstantin Izvolsky, Ph.D., Director of Assessment and Consulting Services, provided a two-day course on the subject. The course focused on how to covert technology-push into market-pull marketing. Included was a session on how to evaluate technologies in order to determine the more productive ways to market them, discovering applications where demand pull exists, understanding how to succeed in those markets, finding and opening discussions with potential licenses and funding sources, leveraging alumni and donation offices, allocating scarce human and financial resources efficiently, and getting to “yes!”. One of the unique advantages of Foresight training is the mix of informative and attention-grabbing seminars with hands-on exercises involving technologies currently being marketed by the TTO. The pedagogical literature confirms that people learn best when they can practice what they have just learned in meaningful exercises. Another unique advantage of Foresight’s approach to training is the emphasis on sharing “tricks of the trade” from leveraging social networking media to cold calling. In a class like this one, where many of the “students” were actually seasoned professionals with over 10 years of experience, Phyllis and Konstantin bring a knowledge sharing approach in which everyone is encouraged to share best practices and to bring up technology transfer challenges for group discussion and problem solving. The result was 1) new perspective on how to better bring technologies to market, 2) new skills and capabilities to make their marketing more productive, and 3) a renewed appreciation for how regular knowledge sharing/problem solving sessions can accelerate successful outcomes.
Please contact Konstantin at 1-401-273-4844, ext. 4003, Konstantin.Izvolsky@ForesightST.com to discuss customized training for your staff.