We're back, with a new plan for our workshops ...

Hope you’re all doing well.

I’ve been thinking a bit about how Braneshop can continue down the workshop path, in some online capacity.

After chatting to lots of different people about how to manage this new environment, one particular conversation with my friend Eike really inspired me to come up with a plan that I actually like, and I think respects the intention and goals of Braneshop.

Eike challenged me to come up with some idea that would work particularly well in this new environment. So here’s the resulting idea.

Central idea: Individual, self-paced, supported by weekly 1-on-1s

Content will be released to you week-by-week.

Read the content and exercises at your own pace.

One-on-one video-chat sessions with an instructor each week.

Complete exercises and homework to consolidate your knowledge.

One of the things I have observed is in common among different online course offerings, is that the companies are focused on throughput — as such, video lectures and automated assessments seem to be the norm. While this might work for some people, there are many of us for which that does not work well.

As a result, we have developed a plan for the technical workshop, which flips things around: we’ll let people read the content and attempt exercises at their own pace, and have weekly check-ins with an instructor for an hour long 1-on-1 chat.

We see lots of positives to this approach:

• Individualised and targeted learning is a way we stand out. We can expose different content for different people, making the learning bespoke, and build in space for focused and useful support.
• Anyone can join at any time; there should be less scheduling conflicts and flexibility for different needs.
• The self-paced style, with regular check-ins, means people don’t get lost mid-way through the course, and allows for the flexibility for them to always feel supported.
• The format scales in a way that we like & across individuals and up to our capacity to interact meaningfully. This stays true to our our style.
• The self-paced style, but with check-ins, means people don’t get lost mid-way through the course, and means they always feel supported.

In order to join this course, we’ll first have a (free) 1-on-1 video chat, to get a feeling for where you are at currently, and where you want to go. We’ll chat over the course, how it’ll be structured, and then start from where you are.

We’ve reduced the price, given that the format is changing, but we’re keeping the scholarship, as our focus to increase the diversity and representation within the AI community has not changed.

You can read more about this over on the technical deep learning workshop page.

On the Leadership workshop …

We have decided to put the leadership workshop on hold, for now. The format works best as a group, and as a focused day. We are still thinking about how we can make that work online; if you have ideas, email us!

We have, instead, extended our offering to include advisory and consulting work, which we’ve detailed here. Our aim is to continue work with companies in a strategic and targeted way, and to support leaders to make the best of AI.

We are really excited for this new offering and are looking forward to working with organisations in this capacity!

Trial of the Online Technical Deep Learning Workshop

Given that this is a new idea for us, and that there will be a few kinks to work out, we’d like to open this up, firstly, for 3 people for free. After working with this “trial group” for 3 weeks, we’ll open up to the general public.

If you’d like to participate in this trial group, then please register your interest.

We’ll kick things off in the last week of April.

Overall

We’re trying to work out how to stay viable as a business in this new environment, as well as offering some services that actually help people and offer something valuable. We think this is a good idea, but it needs to work for you as well.

As always, I’m really interested in your feedback and thoughts. So please reach out if you have any. Does this format work for you? Is it missing something you’d like to see? Let us know!

Thanks!