🍨 It’s like a cherry on top of a scoop of Bits & Bytes ice cream…
Congrats to the planning team for DoIT’s 30th anniversary celebration: winners of a 2025 best-of-district award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) for special events!
Held in May 2024 at Union South, the gathering drew nearly 300 current and former colleagues from the Division of Information Technology for a special afternoon of celebration, with nearly 90 more watching portions of the event online.
The celebration featured:
- A custom Bits & Bytes ice cream flavor, generously loaded with cookie bits and brownie bites — which bested flavors like Giga Bite, Pixel Perfect and Ctrl+Malt+Eat in a special DoIT vote
- An insightful leadership panel where former DoIT leaders Bruce Maas and Tad Pinkerton joined then-Chief Information Officer Lois Brooks for a wide-ranging conversation about DoIT’s founding and evolution over the last 3 decades
- A special DoIT History website that takes takes visitors on an interactive journey through key moments and milestones that have shaped IT at UW–Madison from the 1960s to today
- Games (including DoIT Trivia and Guess the Acronym), a selfie station, and sharing of memories
A blast for the past… and future
Special thanks to our award-winning 30th anniversary planning committee members who made it all happen:
- Laurel Belman
- Nick Heynen
- Marissa Isensee
- Lindsay Krull
- Tyler Ratkowski
- Corissa Runde
- Todd Shechter
- Scott Winger
DoIT Communications designers Justin Masuga and Troy Slama also created event materials, including a team photo to display at the party — a mosaic compilation of selfies depicting those who work for our largely remote division. The DoIT History website team included Laurel Belman, Heba Haq, Justin Masuga, Corissa Runde and Heba Haq.
Our UW–Madison colleagues from the School of Nursing also won the CASE district award for Special Events for their Centennial celebration, as did UW–Madison’s Earth Fest. Special Events winners at our peer institutions included Indiana University, Purdue, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Notre Dame.
“Serving on the 30th Anniversary Committee as a (relatively) newer member of the DoIT community was a truly rewarding experience. It allowed us to reflect on our accomplishments over the past 30 years, celebrate our present achievements, and look ahead to the organization’s future. The anniversary event itself brought together colleagues from near and far — and having even a small role in that process is something I will always value.”
—Tyler Ratkowski
Speaking of events…
Take a brief survey to share your thoughts on what motivates you to attend IT events at UW–Madison. Is it the content? Cost? Time of year? Your insights will help shape future events. Deadline: May 1.
Pictured above: A group selfie, from left: Pete Valeo, Carolyn Daughtry Krill, AJ Daughtry Krill, Sarah Hallas and Natalia Aguirre Villalobos. Current and former UW–Madison Division of Information Technology (DoIT) employees gathered in Varsity Hall at Union South on Tuesday, May 14, 2024, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the division’s founding. (Photo by Amadou Kromah)