Looking to the future

Monday morning I attended my first group meeting with the AVL. The meeting was about looking at achievements of the past and looking forward into the future. After 20 years, the group has accomplished a lot but there are always new initiatives and new goals; the cutting edge moves fast. What was advanced visualization 5, 10, or 20 years ago isn't anymore. Technology changes fast and a group like the AVL can't rest of its laurels.

Seeing a glimpse of priorities for the next 5 years was helpful for me because it gave me an idea of some of the top level categories, some of the priorities, I need to use in my design. The site I am designing isn't about the initiatives but about the projects, so the trick now is to separate initiatives from projects.

Looking into the future... or a head-mounted VR display.

It was interesting to see how different folks in the group responded to changes that are happening, who was pushing back, who was on board. In my working life I've been in several jobs where the company has undergone major upheaval, much more than these changes in focus and funding. Changes at one company I worked at were so poorly received by staff that we were all required to read "Who Moved My Cheese" by Spencer Johnson and attend weekly meetings to discuss it.

It's always enlightening to watch the responses to change.

There are folks who push back and resist, who are comfortable with the way things are. There are folks who accept, maybe asking questions, who realize that moving forward involves change. There are folks who embrace change and see it as exciting, a chance to mold the future.

One of the initiatives moving forward that was mentioned at the meeting was my IA project to create a web portal for many of the AVL's projects. Everyone seems to be on board with the project, recognizing that there is value in having an online portfolio of the work the group has done.