Presentation Description  | Speaker Information | Meeting Agenda  | Location | Registration

NOTE--Location for Meeting
Cleveland Park Library, 2nd Floor, Large Meeting Room
3310 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Wash., DC

A presentation handout will be available at this meeting.

With the support of networking technology and the pressures of globalization, virtual teams are on the increase in the commercial and government worlds. 

• What are the most effective tools to support virtual teams?
• What processes help or hinder virtual teams in their ongoing effort to maintain a common understanding of their project's tasks and status? 

Any kind of teamwork is hard work, and working virtually has even more demands. It is important to understand not only the enabling technology, but also the social, economic, and political effects of working virtually. The presentation will conclude with a set of lessons learned for virtual teams. 

Speaker: Julia Loughran's strengths are her creative ideas, big picture perspective, ability to synthesize technical concepts from different domains into interesting new ideas, project management, and people networking. She has more than 15 years of experience in artificial intelligence, distributed simulation, and virtual environments, and a top secret clearance. In addition, she writes a regular column in the online Simulation Technology Magazine. 

Prior to founding ThoughtLink Inc. with Marcy Stahl, Julia Loughran worked for 10 years at the Institute for Defense Analyses. She earned her M.S. in artificial intelligence/information systems technology from George Washington University in 1993 and her B.S. in communications (with minor in English), from the University of Utah in 1985. 

Outside ThoughtLink, Julia volunteers as an instructor for SeniorNet, teaching seniors to use the Internet. She may be reached at loughran@thoughtlink.com.

ThoughtLink Inc. is a research and consulting firm providing the "bridge" between technologies and the people who use them. Its expertise is in the areas of data analysis, data visualization, and collaboration technologies. ThoughtLink Inc. helps clients identify technology requirements and the best tools to fulfill their needs. It also provides the integration and customization to support client applications. 

ThoughtLink Inc., a woman-owned small business, was founded in 1997. Its clients are mostly DoD and other U.S. government agencies. Projects include technical consulting, software integration, and experiment design, execution, and analysis of results. 

Location: One-half block south of the Cineplex Odeon Uptown movie theatre on Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC. (There are many restaurants suitable for pre- or post-meeting gathering/networking/refreshment in the block north of the library.) 

Parking: Very small lot, off Macomb St., to left of library. 

Metrorail--Cleveland Park Station on the Red Line (on Connecticut Avenue, just 1.5 blocks north of meeting site) 

Free and open to all

Speaker Julia Loughran will be joining us!

Several times a year a smaller group (usually about 8 to 12) goes to Nanny O'Brien's (directly across the street from the library at 3319 Connecticut Avenue, NW, 202-686-9189, open 2 pm Saturday to 2 am Sunday) or another local establishment for continued conversation, networking, and refreshment following the meeting. (Participants pay for their own beverages and food.) 

Join us!