Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Berkeley

Title of entry: URSA Expo: Building Institutional Trust Through Hands-On Discovery

About this entry: The University of California, Berkeley is in the process of a two year Advancement Data System Upgrade. The new system is called URSA (University Resource System for Advancement). The URSA Expo was designed to engage the Berkeley Advancement Community (BAC) and demystify a complex, multi-year systems implementation, shifting the narrative from "technical transition" to "tangible progress" through a fun, low-stakes, and meaningful engagement event.

Recognizing that "go-live" was still over a year away, we hosted a high-energy, interactive open house. We transformed our office into a hands-on "playground" to lower anxiety and build community buy-in. To drive engagement, we implemented a "passport" system: attendees collected stamps at various stations to enter a prize raffle, gamifying the learning process.

The Expo featured five distinct ‘stations’:

- Transformation Tours: Guided walkthroughs of future-state functionality.
- URSA Sandbox: A live environment for real-time "test driving."
- Reporting Spotlight: Presentation of the reporting path.
- Ask an Analyst: Direct access to technical business analysts for Q&A.
- Change Management Zone: Quizzes and trivia to test project knowledge.

The event was highly attended and characterized by "incredible energy" and high participation.
Attendees valued ‘Being able to see first-hand what URSA looks like’. Attendees thought the Expo was thoughtfully executed and that it captured a component that everyone could relate to. Attendees deeply appreciated the effort that has gone into the roll-out of the URSA project.