What’s a JAM?

A JAM is a non-linear exchange; a moderated discussion that is part creative brainstorming, part active dialogue and part focus group. The conversation can involve one institution deeply, or build a broad community of hundreds of people across the country or around the world. We bring people together because of their passion for a subject. In a JAM they share experiences, knowledge, and ideas, and collaborate in search of actionable responses to complex issues -

JAM’s are a high value, low risk way to bring the widest and deepest group of experts together without the time and cost of physical travel.

Most JAM’s occur over the course of a day and the great majority of participants come and go based on their personal schedules – reading and commenting when they can and where they want to.

One valuable bi-product of a JAM is the ability for participants to network with people they would otherwise not have met and spoken with, even in person at a conference.

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We start by delving into your challenge or need. We gather information and data and use surveys to get a deeper understanding of the field’s views on the underlying issues. This deeper understanding helps guide us in defining your JAM goals, objectives and structure.
With the objectives and structure in place, we tap into our collective network of partners and experts who can add color and broaden our thinking in the JAM session. We spend time identifying and preparing the moderators and guest experts and building your JAM site.
We guide the discussion behind-the-scenes, providing suggestions and support to moderators in their discussion threads. We help all participants contribute as they wish. We also actively manage content, post and organize links, add new resources and generate discussion summaries at appropriate intervals. And our technical support team is at the ready. (See "Why JAM?" »)
They say the devil is in the details; we agree. JAM’s can have multiple threads, with a single discussion veering off in a variety of different directions – each one independently valuable but more so when analyzed and carefully woven together to provide the bigger picture. Ultimately, even the best technology cannot find the nuances, cultural insights and “hidden gems” that expert human analysis can.
We believe information is more valuable when it is shared in bite-sized and right-sized ways. While we always deliver a detailed report of our findings, we also prepare top line reports and use data visualizations to convey the actionable insights of the JAM exchange. A participation analysis and resource “book” is also included.

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