Who: Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities (every year for a week of events in November)
The brief: Deliver an online learning session as part of the Festival’s programme of workshops for researchers and engagement teams partnering with voluntary sector / culture sector organisations, to put on events showcasing their research during the festival week. The topic: “working with partners for public engagement events”.
What I did: Drawing on existing knowledge and resources on collaboration and partnership working, I did some additional research specifically on, well, the research sector, and built an interactive presentation around:
- finding partners
- building relationships
- working together
There were approximatly 50 participants on the call, generating lots of activity in the chat, and engaging with the content and the questions I put to them.
What they said:
“Thank you again for yesterday’s training session. It was really good – informative and thoughtful!”~ Jessica Gray, Public Engagement Officer, Being Human Festival (University of London School of Advanced Study)
“Thank you for the insightful presentation and answers!” “That was incrediby helpful, I will revisit the recording.” “I feel more motivated to keep going now.” ~ various participants in the chat
Also someone said they appreciated how beautiful my slides were, which is a always nice because I do put some effort into my presentations!
I was invited back!
In 2025 I was invited to come back and deliver the “working with partners for public engagement” session for the new cohort of researchers and organisations who would be involved in this year’s festival. I updated the content with new case studies and wove in some additional ideas. Participants reported it was a useful and interesting session, informative and reassuring.
