''Very good way to communicate with second/first year students.'' ''I would recommend to organise again as it brings confidence out in people.'' ''It was fun and provided an ex- cellent opportunity to pracce networking skills in a profes- sional context. ''I thought it was a good idea to talk to final year students as experi- ence.'' ''Very good, inter- esng experience, good for networking'' Feedback/ Comments Speed Networking Improving the transion between levels through student exchanges at a speed networking event Authors: Frances Chatwin (VM project assistant) and Andy Hirst (Course leader BICT, ITM and ITwBS) Courses Business and ICT IT with Business Studies IT Management 160 first and final year students Preparations for the Speed-Networking Evening started long before the 26th of Feb- ruary 2014, with the production of floor lay- outs, hand-outs and timing schedules. All of these documents were created to ensure that the students could easily network and sub- contract their projects successfully. The floor layout (left) showed how the rooms were set out. The final year students sat at their tables, whilst the first year students moved round the room to each of the groups. Once the process had finished, and if the first year students had successfully sold them- selves, they were then recruited to complete a sub-task for the final year students. INSPIR!NG STUDENTS External Projects supplied by The Long well Walk; Unifood soluons ltd;SHU; Nutribox; Tiny Tiny Ent; FETN; Redhill Associates; Bike Rehab; ITIL; CSER; Pixibot; HEPP; Selecta; SMM; Baby Bright Eyes Background Reducing drop-out rates and encourage student assimilaon into uni- versity life is key to the university's retenon strategy. As student debt rises SHU must do more to ensure that students starng courses also gain the full benefit. One way to support the transion through the levels is by demysfying and enabling peers to share their own experi- ences of the course. This poster seeks to demonstrate the usefulness of a business speed networking event to support these exchanges. Final year students have first hand experience of teaching and assess- ment, understand beer how to priorise their work loads and can empathise with younger students. Therefore enabling and encouraging dialogue between these students is important to supporng the transi- on between levels. Speed networking is a way to support this dia- logue. Speed networking originally derived from speed dang, encour- ages interacons that otherwise would be difficult to achieve, between different people within a short me period. Inially the speed networking acvity was purely an enterprise acvity that supported inter-trading between different groups of students. However an unintended consequence was the transference of tacit knowledge about student life between level 4 and level 6. The poster hopes to highlight the effecveness that acvies like this have in ena- bling final year and first year students to acvely engage in the learning process together; build closer es to the course; and structures an ex- change that improves the transion between levels. Example of a Project Brief