The NCACE Knowledge Impacts Network (KIN) is a peer to peer network for Knowledge Exchange engaged researchers, and Knowledge Exchange professionals working with the arts and cultural sector, and arts and cultural sector professionals. It will offer interactive and informal opportunities to hear how colleagues are approaching challenges, swap industry intelligence, share knowledge, experience and successes, and build and enhance professional support networks.

The first meeting of KIN will focus on building online communities of collaboration and experimentation. The past year has resulted in many forced innovations, in some cases hastening us further and faster down an existing path, in others, taking us around an unexpected corner. Whilst some of the advantages of taking Knowledge Exchange and collaboration work online are apparent; the removal of some physical, geographical and financial barriers, for example, it also brings many challenges too. Can we replicate the spark and playful possibilities of human interaction in a digital environment? Does technology distract or enhance? What do we want to keep in the “post pandemic” world, and what can’t you wait to lose? And how can we build online cultures and communities that do not continue to privilege the same voices and experiences in the same inequitable ways?

These questions give a starting point, but we ask you to bring your thoughts, questions and observations to the table, to consider and workshop alongside provocations from Sean Michael Morris of University of Colorado, co-founder of the Digital Pedagogy Lab, Maureen Salmon, Director of Digital Development at Royal Shakespeare Company Sarah Ellis. The meeting will be facilitated by Suzie Leighton, Co-Director of NCACE and TCCE.