Engage 2024: Call for Contributions

Engage Live 2024 is going to be a celebration of excellent engagement practice in all its forms - led by researchers, engagement professionals, communities, charities and organisations acting as agents for societal change. If you have developed creative ways to share and build knowledge; are working to build inclusive research cultures; or creating change from the ground up, we want to hear from you!

The call for contributions will close on Tuesday 19^th of December 2023 at 10am. 

Engage Live 2024 will explore these questions:

• What does excellent practice in engagement look like across organisations working as actors for social change? How can we draw on learning from across a range of sectors that can lead to innovation in our own work?
• As we innovate in our engagement practice, how can we ensure that we continue to make a case for this work within our organisations and the systems we work in? How can we shift and shape our messaging to bring senior leadership, funders and policy-makers on this journey? 
• What are the levers in our wider systems that we can help drive change forward? What actions can we take collectively to maximise our influence on the ecosystems we operate in? 

Engage 2024 will be a celebration of thoughtful and creative engagement practice across a wide range of sectors. We invite you to explore one or more of these principles in your contribution to the festival. 

Practice that is anchored in the ‘real world’

How can engagement practice be grounded in the needs and complexities of the ‘real world?’ How do you address the vital but messy areas of engagement, such as navigating different cultures, access needs, or specific place-based challenges? What ethical challenges must be addressed as part of our work?

Practice that is inclusive and accessible

What are you doing in your practice to actively challenge the systems and barriers that reinforce inequality? How are you reaching a diverse audience? Can a lens of public engagement help to tackle the lack of diversity within the academy and other organisations?

Practice that elicits change

How are you designing your engagement work so that it creates actions, outcomes, and change? How is this helped or hindered by your organisation, funding, and the wider system? How are you aligning with wider change agendas (e.g., the Research Excellence Framework) in your organisation or in the wider system?

Practice that brings others along on the journey

How are you using your practice to influence others? What techniques and approaches have you used as a change-maker to make a case for your engagement practice to leaders, colleagues, partners, or funders? 

If you would like to contribute to one or more of the above themes, have innovative practices to share, tricky issues to explore, or would like to stimulate discussion, reflection and action, we invite you to share your ideas. Conference working sessions could include the following formats:

• Interactive workshops (1 hour): Host a workshop exploring the practice, principles or prospects of public engagement. Please make sure you tell us how you will ensure the session is tailored to the needs of delegates, and how you will use interactivity to encourage participation.
• Debates and panel discussions (1 hour): Convene a debate or panel discussion. Sessions will provide opportunities to hear a range of perspectives relating to the conference themes. We welcome creative approaches to managing these discussions.
• Storytelling (7 mins, plus Q&A): Storytelling is a powerful engagement tool, and we are keen to hear your tales. We invite you to create stories that will captivate and engage. Stories should be no more than 7 minutes and will be followed by Q&A. These sessions will bring together several story tellers to weave their magic.
• Contribution wildcard (1 hour): Do you have a great idea for a session, but it doesn’t fit the categories above? We want to encourage our contributors to pilot, develop and share new approaches to engaging in conference settings and invite you to use the wildcard option to contribute something really different.
• Practice showcase poster or encounter (drop in): Bring your practice to life during our practice showcase with either an engaging poster or interactive encounters activity. This session will be a lively space for networking and sharing, with delegates dropping in and out of the showcase stands. We welcome exciting and innovative ways of engaging delegates in this dynamic environment. 

Innovation Grants: Got an idea for a session but you need extra resources to get it off the ground? Let us know on your submission, and if your contribution is successful we will contact you to discuss the support we can offer. Funding could cover: contributor time; time to develop / pilot your approach; purchasing equipment to support the session.

Conference bursaries: the indicative cost for Engage Live 2024 is £380 (ex VAT). There will be a limited number of bursaries available to enable community organisations, early career researchers, and organisations from outside Higher Education Institutes to participate if the ticket price is prohibitive. Further information will be available when registration opens.

Every contributor role at Engage 2024 has a set of expectations we invite you to sign up to. This will ensure that the activities delivered are meaningful, inclusive and accessible.

As an Engage 2024 contributor, you will be you will be responsible for the delivery of the content of your session in its entirety, including:

• Upholding NCCPE's accessible and inclusive practice guidelines
• Designing and delivering the session as outlined in your application.
• Bringing together an appropriate team of contributors (where relevant), with particular care given to the diversity of the speakers/facilitators and how partner or community voices are brought into the space.
• Sending NCCPE all session information as outlined in the timeline below.
• Ensuring all contributors to your session register before the speaker registration deadline, as outlined in the timeline below. 
• Notifying NCCPE with as much notice as possible if you are unable to deliver your session for any reason, and suggesting alternative speakers/facilitators or session outlines to fill the gap left in the conference programme.

To support Engage 2024 contributors, the NCCPE will commit to the following:

• Providing a safe, supportive conference environment for session delivery by upholding NCCPE's accessible and inclusive practice guidelines
• Providing contributors with a timely notification of the outcome of their application, as outlined in the timeline below. 
• Opening registration for exclusive contributor 10 days before tickets go on general sale. 
• Publicising contributor workshops on the conference webpage and in NCCPE communications channels.
• Providing an appropriate, accessible workshop room for session delivery on the day, including AV assistance and NCCPE team member support. 

Applications will be scored on the following criteria: 

• Clarity of session purpose and target participants
• Link to (one or more) conference themes
• Suitability of the format to purpose and participants
• Balance of contributors relevant to the practices being shared
• Relevance to the target audience
• Extent to which content is engaging, relevant, and accessible

Following assessment against the criteria, a long list of the quality applications will be made. Final choices will be made from this long list, to ensure the conference programme covers a range of approaches, formats, themes, and addresses a range of audiences. 

Please complete the application form below with details of the contribution you would like to make. You are welcome to submit up to two applications to the conference - please ensure that you submit separate forms for each one. You can be named as an additional contributor in as many submissions as applies.

The application form cannot be saved and returned to at a later date and cannot be retrieved in the event of an internet connection error or timeout, so please prepare your words in a separate document. 

Applications close on Tuesday 19^th of December 2023 at 10am. If you have any queries please contact NCCPEconference@uwe.ac.uk.

Please note, by filling in this application form you are committing to being able to deliver the workshop at Engage 2024 as outlined in your application. If successful, we will use the wording in your application to market your session, so please ensure this is correct and accurate before submitting. 

Your Details

• First name 
• Surname 
• Job Title 
• Name of organisation 
• Email address 
• Which conference days are you available? 

Contribution details

• Which type of conference session would you like to contribute?
  • Interactive workshop (1 hour)
  • Debate or panel discussion (1 hour)
  • A story (7 mins)
  • Contribution wildcard (1 hour)
  • A poster (drop-in)
  • An encounter (drop-in)

• Which conference theme(s) will you be contributing to? (Tick all that apply)
  • Practice that is anchored in the ‘real world’
  • Practice that is inclusive and accessible
  • Practice that elicits change
  • Practice that brings others along on the journey

• Please outline the purpose of your contribution and how it is linked to the conference theme (250 word limit)

• Please tell us which group(s) your contribution will be relevant to, and how you will make it engaging and accessible for them (250 word limit)

• What do you hope will be the outcome(s) for participants? (100 words max)

• What do you hope will be the outcome(s) for you and your contributors? (100 words max)

• Proposed title, for use in the conference programme. If your application is successful, this will be used in the conference programme as is.

• Please share a short description of your contribution that we can use in the programme. This should capture the heart of what you are doing, and the experience delegates can expect. The purpose is to encourage delegates to participate in relevant sessions. (100 words max.) (Please note these are the words we will use in the programme, and you cannot change them at a later date.)

   

• How did you fund the work that your contribution is based on?

• Do you have any specific requirements for your contribution? E.g. room set-up (cabaret, theatre style, other); access requirements; AV; stationery etc. We will try to accommodate these needs as much as possible.

• Specific requirements for posters and encounters

Additional facilitator or contributor details

Please use this section to add the details of anyone else who will be involved in delivering your session. 

• If you have additional contributors, please use this space to note who they are. (Please include their name, organisation and job title)
• What role will your contributor(s) play? E.g. facilitating, sharing a case-study, hosting a table, giving a presentation...

Innovation Grant

• Approximate amount needed for contributor time
  • Please tell us briefly about your contributors (100 words max)
• Approximate amount needed for developing or piloting your approach
  • Please tell us briefly about how you will develop or pilot your approach (100 words max)
• Approximate amount needed for purchasing equipment
  • Please tell us briefly what equipment you need to purchase, and how it would be used beyond the conference (100 words max)
• Approximate amount needed for other costs
  • Please tell us briefly about your other costs (100 words max)