Book Sprints In Review: News This 2023

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! It’s been a busy 15th year anniversary for us so far, and we’ve worked with various communities to launch several new books into their spaces. 

🏃 Sprints this year 

Here are some of the fantastic organizations we’ve had the pleasure of working with this 2023 and their brilliant ideas that we helped bring to life: 

• Women Deliver
  • We worked with Women Deliver to co-create with youth leaders in writing Equitable Youth Engagement and Co-Leadership, a report released in preparation for their Women Deliver 2023 Conference that advocated for a new approach to working with adolescents and youth in all gender equality advocacy and decision-making spaces. 
• Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) at the US Department of Commerce
  • In their 7th Book Sprint, CLDP gathered diverse experts from the energy sector to write about the important topic of abating methane emissions. Through this Sprint, they were able to create a policy handbook to guide officials in the oil and gas sectors towards rapid reduction of methane emissions. 
• Cisco
  • Network automation is crucial for efficiency and scalability. In order to help customers to leverage the potential of network automation, a group of nine Cisco professionals came together in a Book Sprint. They created a guide book titled “The Power of Network Automation – Using Cisco DNA Center.”

• Singing Justice collective at the University of Michigan
  • This Book Sprint was the culmination of the Singing Justice collective’s two-year long project of thinking through, learning about, and teaching Black Song. Hosted by the University of Michigan Humanities Collaboratory, the collective consists of a fabulous team of researchers, performers, and educators.

• DISCO Network
  • Last June 2023, we had the privilege of watching fourteen brilliant minds come together to create Techno-skepticism: Between Possibility and Refusal. Written by the principal investigators and fellows of DISCO Network, the upcoming book Techno-skepticism asks the question of what it means to interface with technology and the digital through the intersectionality of our different identities, and what power we have to explore or refuse it.

• Wabash College
  • In August 2023, seven Christian pastors came together at Wabash University to write Seek the Wellbeing of the City in a five-day Book Sprint facilitated by Barbara Ruehling. Community leaders in their own right, these men and women authored a book that transcends theological discourse, delves into the nitty-gritty of community leadership, and provides practical advice from the years of experience in various communities and backgrounds of these pastors. 

• e-teaching.org at the IWM Tübingen
  • We joined e-teaching.org to conduct a one-of-a-kind Sprint in celebration of their 20th anniversary. In what was dubbed as a “Content Sprint,” Book Sprints facilitator Barbara Ruehling joined six assessment experts from different universities and three in-house editors to update several topic pages on assessments within the massive repository of knowledge that is the e-teaching portal.  

🎉 Celebrating our 15th Anniversary

This year, we’re celebrating 15 years of Book Sprints and transformation. We kicked it off with a partnership with the brilliant Book Dash team to donate over 2,000 books to children in need in South Africa. 

We’re also running a series of interviews with some of our Book Sprints champions, who have shared their own personal stories of growth and transformation through Book Sprints. Read them here: 

15th Anniversary Spotlight with Lisa Nakamura

15th Anniversary Spotlight with Andrés Vega

The celebrations continue on next year, so keep an eye out for more updates from us! 

👋 We’ve got some new team members!

This year we also welcomed new team members! Joining our Book Sprints family are Anna Roxas for Business Development, Trisha Reyes for Social Media, and Jana Mendelski for Facilitation. 

📍 Follow us on social media

Stay connected with us on LinkedIn or Facebook to stay up to date on our projects and get inspiration for your next Book Sprint! 

Got a new idea you’re working on for a Book Sprint? Reach out to us at contact@booksprints.net so we can get started on your next run. 

From our Book Sprints family to yours, happy holidays and a prosperous 2024 ahead! 

All the best,

The Book Sprints team