Public engagement can transform the ways universities behave and how they are perceived and valued. Join us at Engage 2010 to find out why engaging with the public is a critical survival strategy for the 21st century university, and how different institutions are rising to the challenge.

Booking is now open for this event

The conference will take place on:

7th December 2010 - 9.45am - 17.00pm

8th December 2010 - 9.30am - 16.45pm

Engage 2010 is the NCCPE's first national conference focusing on the broad theme of why and how universities should engage with the public.

The conference is aimed at anyone with an interest in university public engagement and will include content tailored to senior managers, academic staff and researchers, volunteering staff, support staff, policy makers, students and community partners.

Content will include

• The launch of our Public Engagement Manifesto and associated resources - distilling the learning from the beacons initiative, and created to inspire and support universities to embrace engagement in their work;
• High profile speakers exploring the place of public engagement in the 21st Century university system;
• Workshops to share the stories of the beacons and others - honest, practical accounts of ways they've sought to make their universities more 'engagement friendly' - everything from creating an engagement strategy to changing reward structures in their institutions
• Engagement in practice: front line experiences from practitioners who've developed effective ways of engaging with the public - from co-produced research projects to student volunteering including case studies from our vinspired student project
• The launch of resources from our vinspired students project, including our research into student volunteering.

Programme

The full programme will be published in November - when booked delegates will be able to make their workshop choices. There will be a mixed programme both days - including strands focusing on culture change, engagement in practice, and student engagement/volunteering. Many of the workshops will be informed by the work of the Beacons for Public Engagement and our vinspired students project.

Day one will see us launch our manifesto for public engagement. Plenary speakers include Alan Thorpe and Nancy Rothwell. Day two speakers include David Sweeney and Ger Graus.