 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the UCAT Festival TV with me, Colm Cronin. And today I am absolutely delighted to be joined by a colleague but also a friend and one of the most talented individuals. I know Gavin Farber, welcome to UCAT Festival 2020. How are you? I'm good today. I'm excited to be a part of this. Yeah, well, delighted to have you part of it. I mean, truly, UCAT is going global. And I think part of the nice piece about the fact that it is a virtual event means that it does allow for participation from all over the world. And you don't have to worry about the jet lag that you can get if you were flying over to this side. Tell me, though, for viewers, how did you get involved with UCAT? So I first met UCAT reps when I first went to the NACADA Annual Conference back in 2017. It was in St. Louis, Missouri in the States. And I just remember meeting like David Gray, who is now the CEO of UCAT. Over the years, just sort of connecting with different folks who were like, we're Americans that were joining UCAT. And you'd hear Charlie Nutt, our Executive Director of NACADA, talking about UCAT and really being exposed to the International Conference in Dublin in 2018 gave full exposure to both Irish, British folks from all around the world, really, and what UCAT was. And it made me kind of intrigued about, like, okay, on the other side of the, it's the pond, I guess, there's this other practice of advising and tutoring that as a practitioner here in the States, I send a lot of students abroad. And I want to know, like, if they go to Ireland, like, what are they expected to be? What's that advising experience going to look like? So for me, it was about connecting the dots. And we're global citizens. And I think we're in a field that is not just an American field. It's a global field. You know, it's why NACADA switched from the national to the global. Like, back in, I think, the early 2000s. So it makes me feel more connected to the profession, honestly. Yeah. I totally understand what you're saying. And like you, I really enjoy kind of finding out in which the way advising works and personal tutoring works in different countries around the world. And I know one of the things that you are involved with with UCAT is the special interest groups, right? Correct. I'm coming in as the special interest groups coordinator. And I'm going to help sort of organize the coordinating of the leaders in those six groups and just sort of just provide support to them. I got involved just because in the States with NACADA, I'm a chair of one of our advising communities on training and development. So it's a very large community with a lot of moving global pieces, I guess I should say. And so in the last two years, I've grown a lot as just someone who's able to connect the dots a bit and, you know, and getting to meet those leaders last week in our first kind of Zoom chat was phenomenal because it now put faces to names. And, you know, I'm really happy that the Fest is going to have, you know, these meetings going on. So if you're interested in these areas, go to them. Meet people. Network. You know, that's sort of, I think, the purpose of why these special interest groups exist. Yeah. And what are some of the special interest groups, Gavin? Just as for viewers watching this, if they're not familiar, what are the special interest groups and how can they get involved? Sure. So there's six groups right now on the UCAT website. And they're entitled H-E and F-E. So I believe that's sort of something to do with like community colleges, equivalency here in the States, international students, postgraduate studies or students. They're senior tutor networking for senior level tutors, student engagement, and then technology and advising. And these six areas are kind of big bulked areas I think that UCAT is doing. And it's great. There's six great groups to start with because it's describing the types of students you might be tutoring, the, you know, the place of which your professional development might be in or where you're at as a professional, or if you want to know about technology and advising. I mean, just look at how the world's changed since January, February, March of 2020. We're all working digitally. We're all using online platforms to advise students. And so, you know, George Gray, who's formerly of Ohio State, who's like a technology whiz, is helping to lead that group. And he's just a great asset to UCAT. That's how I first met him actually through the International Conference and attending one of his precons with David Gray, the CEO of UCAT, just to connect the dots a bit of like, how are they using technology and how can I do this in my own job? So yeah. Yeah, I think it's really interesting because I know that George and David have been working on the technology side for so long. And as you say, it could not be more relevant. And I think his closing keynote will be one of the highlights of the conference, but there are a whole host of things to look forward to. And I hope that you will get the opportunity to dial into some of them. I am sure that there's more information on the UCAT website if people want to know more about the special interest groups. And also for any of our viewers, you can find more information on UCAT's suite of social media. Gavin, I want to thank you for taking the time to chat to me today. I really appreciate it and I know our viewers will as well. And the best of luck with the special interest groups. Thank you so much, my friend. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.