(Joint post from Linda Raftree, MERL Tech and Megan Colnar, Open Society Foundations)
The American Evaluation Association Conference happens once a year, and offers literally hundreds of sessions. It can take a while to sort though all of them. Because there are so many sessions, it’s easy to feel a bit lost in the crowds of people and content.
So, Megan Colnar (Open Society Foundations) and I thought we’d share some of the sessions that caught our eye.
I’m on the look-out for innovative tech applications, responsible and gender-sensitive data collection practices, and virtual or online/social media-focused evaluation techniques and methods. Megan plans to tune into sessions on policy change, complexity-aware techniques, and better MEL practices for funders.
We both can’t wait to learn about evaluation in the post-truth and fake news era. Full disclosure, our sessions are also featured below.
Hope we see you there!
Wednesday, November 8th
3.15-4.15
- Opening plenary session: From Learning to Action: Employing Evaluation to Advance the Public Good Marriott Salon
4.30-6.00
- 2192:What we’ve learned from putting Adaptive Learning and Experimentation into practice Madison A
- How to Have Difficult Evaluation Conversations [with stakeholders] in a Post-Truth Era, Virginia A
We also think a lot of the ignite talks during this session in the Thurgood Salon South look interesting, like:
- 5.00-5.05 The Tenth Evaluator: Why Groupthink is dangerous to Evaluation – Ignite 6
- 5.05-5.10 1538: Understanding topics in behavioral economics: how participation and data collection can be influenced by non-rational human response – Ignite 7
- 5.30-5.35 Prototyping Civic Engagement: What we learned from early failures, Ignite 14
- 5.45-5.50 1109:Considerations around non-traditional big data sources: using sales data for a federal evaluation of tobacco products – Ignite 58
6.15-7.15
- 2939: Evaluating social media impact: Experiential learning in a social media evaluation plan for maximum engagement Virginia A
- Making Foundation Evaluation More Useful: The Potential of Evaluation Advisory Groups, Park TWR STE 8223
- Rowing against the current: Advocacy evaluation in difficult political contexts, Wilson B
7.00-8.30
Tour of a few poster sessions before dinner. Highlights might include:
- M&E for Journalism (51)
- Measuring Advocacy (3)
- Survey measures of corruption (53)
- Theory of change in practice (186)
- Using social networks as a decision-making tool (225)
Thursday, Nov 9th
8.00-9.00 – early risers are rewarded with some interesting options
- Evaluating Advocacy in the Early Trump Years: What Evaluators and Funders Need to Know, Park TWR Ste 8206
- Rethinking Impact in the Information Age, Virginia C
- Innovative Qualitative Approaches to Capturing Complexity: Three Case Studies, Park TWR Ste 8205
9.15-10.15
- Presidential Strand: 3596:Dialogues on Race & Class in America Marriott Salon 1-3
10.30-11.15
- Innovations in Collecting and Presenting Qualitative Data, Virginia C
- 2995: Let’s Get Real: Evaluation Methodologies in a Virtual World PARK TWR STE 8224
- ITE2: Technological Tools Enhancing Evaluation Roosevelt 4
12.15-1.15
1.15-2.00
- 1908: Gaining Informed Consent in the Digital Age: Case study Jefferson (Linda’s session)
- Capturing public perceptions to inform policy decisions: Examples from Moldova and South Africa, Madison A
- Evaluation to inform public-interest decisions: Examples from the US and Tanzania, Harding
- Using the Practice Profile in order to Make Foundation Strategy Evaluable, Washington 6
2.15-3.00
- 1426: Cutting through the noise: Finding meaningful lessons in social media data Roosevelt 4
- How do we know what difference advocacy makes? Using contribution analysis in policy work, Jefferson
3.15-4.15
- 2466: What are we learning about the gender dimensions of tech-related interventions? Marriott Balcony A (Linda’s session)
- Advancing Advocacy and Policy Change Evaluation Practice: Leveraging the Wisdom From the Field, Park TWR Ste 8217
- Funders, Foundations, and Grantees: High Impact Investments and Collaboration through Evaluation, Roosevelt 1
4.30-5.15
- Seeing the Forest Through the Trees: a donor’s trial and error in portfolio evaluation, Park TWR Ste 8210 (Megan’s Session)
Friday, Nov 10th
8.00-9.30 – early risers rewarded again!
- 2023: Responsible data practices for digital development Marriott Balcony A (Linda’s session)
- Hidden Systems: Conducting Political Economy Analysis in Difficult Data Contexts, Park TWR Ste 8219
11.00-11.45
- 1810: Using Emerging Technologies to Better Engage Stakeholders in Evaluation PARK TWR STE 8224
- Refreshing Evaluation in Support of the Social Movements Revival, Jefferson
- Strategy or Evaluation: I Hate These Blurred Lines!, Park Twr 8216
1.45-3.15
- 1731: Experiences and learning on methods to measure gendered social norms in program evaluation Delaware A
- What would you do?: Setting up and implementing impact evaluations under challenging circumstances – Lessons learned from Rwanda, Mozambique and Nepal, Washington 6
3.30-4.15
- Learning in the Long Term: What happens when a donor asks for less frequent evaluation and reporting?, Park TWR Ste 8218
- Lessons Learnt from a Portfolio level Evaluation for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Jefferson
- Learning from Action: Achieving Social and Financial Impact – Is it Possible? PARK TWR STE 8216
4.30-5.15
- Accommodating Performance Management and Policy Evaluation: Lessons from the field of Pay for Success, Park TWR ste 8223
- Becoming a Bayesian Columbo: a demonstration of Process-Tracing from start to finish, Thurgood Marshall East
5.30-6.15– if you can hold out for one more on a Friday evening
- Educating Funders- how evaluators can shape smarter grantmaking, Park TWR Ste 8219 (Megan’s session)
6.30-7.15
- Overcoming Barriers to Building a Dynamic Evaluation-Informed Learning Culture in Philanthropy Maryland C
Saturday, Nov 11th–you’re on your own! Let us know what treasures you discover
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