It has been an absolute joy travelling around the UK to hold our first series of in-person regional Community of Practice (CoP) Meets for Social Venture Building and Arts, Humanities and Social Science (AHSS) Commercialisation.
The aim of these meets was, in part, to recreate the online webinars of case studies and technical conversations we hold more regularly, but alongside an intentionally dedicated focus on making us feel more connected and able to work together.
Codesign, peer support and member-led activity are important aims of how the CoP can be a part of the cultural change needed to establish, legitimise and reward genuinely impactful commercialisation. It was fantastic just to actually see everyone that joined us in the meets in person. But to also see everyone get involved in these open, supportive discussions felt like a very important step in our work and gave me the perfect prompts for how to establish governance and development of the CoP moving forward.
All of our host institutions were so helpful in making the meets happen, and we gained so much from hearing their honest accounts of trying to develop these processes and get projects through their universities. So, a massive thanks again to the University of Leeds, Edinburgh Napier University, The University of Bedfordshire and the University of the West of England.
We also had a long list of other fascinating contributors. We heard social enterprise case studies, social enterprise legal expertise, policy initiatives, leading commercialisation research insights, HE-based accelerators, industry incubators, and so many more that I do not even have the space here to thank them all properly.
We are using LinkedIn to celebrate the Meets and keep the connections going for more peer support, and our online Hub will share some of the learning from these sessions. Keep an eye out for these posts to make sure you are a part of the CoP’s next steps.
The Community of Practice will be back on the road next to participate in the PraxisAuril Conference 2024 in Blackpool. Then, we will return to online events and keep the conversation going about professional practice for impactful commercialisation. So get in touch with anything you want to see or share in the future, and we hope to see you joining us in the CoP soon!
