Kaunas, Lithuania

VAKEN Sprint Week 2

16-20.5.2022

VAKEN is a two-year project which is financed by Nordplus, and the partner institutes.

Introduction

You will meet and work with students from 6 European countries, get new knowledge and improve your soft skills, which you can use in your further studies and career. You will work on a real-life project in an international group in cooperation with the client. During the week, you will solve a big problem and test new ideas in just five days. Furthermore, you will have fun learning and networking.

You will get a certificate of 3 ECTS when attending the Sprint week.
Below we have gathered the most necessary information you need before and during the VAKEN Sprint week. If you need further information, please do not hesitate to be in touch with the contact person at your institution. (found below on this page)

Event venue

Kauno kolegija/Kaunas University of Applied Sciences

Pramonės 22A Kaunas 50468 Room 4-406

Getting to Kaunas

There is public transportation: train available from the airport to Vilnius railway station and from there to Kaunas railway station or bus to Vilnius railway station No 1.
You can see the timetables and buy a train ticket here: https://www.traukiniobilietas.lt/portal/en

Look at the timetable according to your arrival time.

From Kaunas railway station there ” Geležinkelio stotis” is a bus 57G and trolleybuses No. 14, 15 to your hotel “Moxy”. To take said busses, you must go through the underground passage and turn right to reach a bus stop. Then you must take a bus or trolleybus up to the “Kauno dramos teatras” bus stop.

Students traveling on their own can buy a train ticket and save the receipt for the reimbursement procedure. You can buy a bus ticket here: https://web.trafi.com/lt/vilnius

Pre-assignment

Get familiar with all the information available on this website, in particular, the process and the soft skills. The purpose of the pre-assignment is to get familiar with the subject and to understand the project given by the client.

1) You start by reading about the client and the sector/industry in which they operate (more information found below). Look for different sources of information, research articles, web pages, etc. Get familiar with different use cases, experience technology, the industry, and the experience economy.

2) Do a benchmark in your own region. What does the museum industry look like? What type of museums are there? What kind of activities do they arrange? What makes them stand out from the crowd? Etc.

Prior to the sprint week in Kaunas, meet with your fellow students at your home University, and present and discuss your findings/research results.
Together with your local team, make a short presentation of your findings on 3-5 slides (alt. video, poster) that you can introduce to your future team members in Kaunas. (new groups will be created in Kaunas) All presentations will be shared with all students at the beginning of the Sprint.

3) We also want that you look into www.digitaltransformation.net and read the ‘Leading the Digital Transformation book’. Pay close attention to the following: What is Digital Transformation? What are the nine forces driving digital Transformation? Look at the use case in the book. Learn from them!

Do also check the Vaken site www.vaken.org and get familiar with all the information available, in particular the process and the soft skills. Also, watch the videos below. 

1. How to solve a problem in four steps (Introduction to complex solving problem process, definition, and steps in problem-solving process) 5:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOjTJAFyNrU
2. Creative thinking: How to increase the dots to connect (Introduction to creative thinking process, definition, and examples) 5:10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYhgIlTy4yY
3. Why self-leadership (Explanation of the idea behind the self-leadership term) 1:09
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsEmbqbM0U4
4. What is critical thinking (Introduction to critical thinking process, definition, and examples) 2:34
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eEBuqwY-nE

The purpose of the pre-assignment is to get familiar with the subject and to understand the project given by the company.

Client brief

The Open-Air Museum of Lithuania is one of the largest ethnographic open-air museums in Europe that stretches across the area of 195 ha. The museum was established on the picturesque shores of Kaunas Lagoon in Rumšiškės in 1966. The exhibitions at the museum are intended to introduce the ethnographic regions of Lithuania, i. e. Dzūkija (Dainava), Aukštaitija (Highlands), Suvalkija (Sudovia), Žemaitija (Samogitia) and Lithuania Minor, as they looked at the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 20th century

INCREASING THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE MUSEUM

  • How might we attract the younger audiences to the museum (age 18 till 25)

Client website: https://www.llbm.lt/en/home/

Output by the May 20th
By the end of the sprint week your team must present the following:

  • A visual presentation showing your solution (any format is accepted). In addition hand-in, a written summary (max 5 pages) in pdf format, of the concept including:
  • The solution (How it is innovative and unique? Why this would work? What is the competitive advantage?)
  • Motivation for the solution based on research, justifying your the results
  • References

Send your summary and visual presentation to christa.tigerstedt@arcada.fi at Arcada UAS no later than May 20th. The material will be sent to the client.

Travel insurance

Travelling is your own responsibility. VAKEN doesn´t cover in any case of emergency or illness. You can choose among many local insurance companies offers in your country of residency, or you can also apply for EHIC, which works in EU countries.

The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) is a joint document for all European Union, European Economic Area countries and Switzerland Confederation that confirms the rights of citizens to received state-funded emergency and necessary healthcare services to the same extent that it has secured the country’s population.

The EHIC ensures that the necessary and urgent medical care is given to the same extent as is provided to the country’s residents, where the patient is receiving medical help. This medical help will be provided by the hospitals and the doctors who provide state-guaranteed health care services.

Additional links:
https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=559
For local issuing institutions click on the link and select your country: https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=563&langId=en#nationalinfo

Covid - 19

To participate you must have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and you need to have a vaccination certificate.


We are looking forward to meeting you in Kaunas!

Arcada University of Applied Sciences, Finland – Mikael Forsström, mikael.forsstrom@arcada.fi

University College Lillebælt, Denmark, – Kristin Utne krut@ucl.dk

TTK University of Applied Sciences, Estonia, – Britt Petjärv britt.petjarv@tktk.ee

Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Latvia – maira.lescevica@va.lv

Kauno kolegija/University of Applied Sciences, Lithuania – Indrė Knyvienė indre.knyviene@go.kauko.lt

University of Akureyri, Iceland – Hafdís Björg Hjálmarsdóttir hafdisb@unak.is

Vilniaus Kolegija, Lithuania – Dalia Karlaité d.karlaite@vvf.viko.lt

Learn more about the VAKEN Process and the VAKEN toolkit

The VAKEN team is working on the VAKEN Process and documenting the tools.  We are taking it for a first round of tests in Odense and Kaunas!