Dialogue: Public Engagement Beyond Public Lectures workshop 29th and 30th January 2019.
All researchers are expected to do public engagement – to interact with stakeholder groups and/or wider ‘publics’ in order to increase the impact of their research. Public engagement takes different forms in different disciplines, but in all cases it is most effective when researchers talk with people rather than lecturing at them, when we are open to hearing what other groups have to say.
This course gives practical guidance on how to go about such ‘collaborative conversations’ in a way that is relevant to your research. It builds on the principles of ‘dialogue’, which has proved a powerful approach to communication in public engagement and many other areas. Come to this course and you will:
•Learn to recognise and address where your publics are coming from;
•Build your skills in facilitating dialogue so that everyone is heard and contributes;
•Think strategically about how to design dialogic public engagement activities;
•Start developing the skills to reflect and improve upon your engagement and other communication practices long after the course has ended.
Our training approach combines theory and practice. We will take you through a series of focused exercises, interspersed with short presentations and time for reflection, so that you experience a range of approaches and techniques you can then use in your future work.
Whether you are planning to engage with government bodies, business, product or service users or citizens, this course can help make you more effective. You will leave with a toolbox of skills and techniques that you can use (and refine) in a range of different settings, including – but not only – public engagement with research.
By the end of this workshop you will be able to:
1.Recognise and address where your publics are coming from;
2.Build your skills in facilitating dialogue so that everyone is heard and contributes;
3.Think strategically about how to design dialogic public engagement activities;
4.Continue developing the skills to reflect and improve upon your engagement and other communication practices long after the course has ended.
Find out more here
