Dear PraxisAuril members and friends,
Knowledge Exchange is a people business and the most important part of PraxisAuril is its members, without whom we could not achieve what we do as an organisation. The health of our members is of the utmost importance at this time and for that reason, we have postponed all face-to-face activities until the end of May and are urgently assessing venue options in relation to our June conference.
Getting people together is one of the activities our members value most – whether that’s internationally, nationally, or at a regional level. At our recent Strategy Away days our key stakeholders praised PraxisAuril for its convening power; our ability to provide a space that bridges research and business and bring together a variety of voices to discuss challenges and opportunities in knowledge exchange.
So, anything that affects our ability to convene members, stakeholders, and potential collaborators has a significant impact on the people we represent and work with. The Coronavirus pandemic is an extraordinary event that is quickly challenging us to behave and work in unfamiliar ways. In conditions where many of us are distanced from colleagues and collaborators. We must ask ourselves what we can do to ensure that KE continues to thrive.
This is an important question because without knowledge exchange the new ideas that we will need to get us out of this crisis may not emerge. It is in taking science from ‘bench to bedside’ that we will find a way of combatting the virus. The connections that our members make – bringing researchers, developers, users and investors together – are critical to the innovation processes that will help us to manage this period of crisis and find a solution.
Many members of PraxisAuril have been asked to work from home and we have postponed all training courses until at least September 2020. We want to maintain our community’s spirit and continue to engage members, volunteers and stakeholders in the meantime and are actively looking at ways to do that:
- Although we already provide jisc-lists for a number of SIGs, we will endeavour to bring the planned roll-out of a Higher-Logic platform forward so that there is a communications and interaction platform available to all members.
- We have a back-up plan for a ‘virtual KE awards’ should we be obliged to postpone our annual conference. We continue to celebrate your success!
- We are planning webinars and other virtual options to bring together discussion groups.
- Please tell us how we can best support you and your teams – we will endeavour to do whatever we can to put our resources to best use on your behalf.
The Coronavirus has affected each and every one of us, the organisations we work for, and the people and organisations we work with. It is stressful in many different ways and we know that work cannot always take priority. As a business, we are proud to put family first and we understand that members will need to do the same.
We will come out of this time of crisis with different mindsets and perhaps a renewed focus on how we do business - and we will all need to innovate to embrace the brave new world which we will undoubtedly face - who better to do this than a network of KE practitioners!! We look forward to seeing and interacting with our members, friends and colleagues online soon and face to face in due course. In the meantime, we are here to continue to help you to Develop, Promote and Connect. Please do get in touch.
Kind regards,
Maxine Ficarra Sean Fielding RTTP
CEO, PraxisAuril PraxisAuril Chair, 2019-2021
168 Cowley Road Cambridge CB4 0DL
+44 (0) 1223 659950 (switchboard)
www.praxisauril.org.uk | @PraxisAuril