My colleague Tom Clark from (the Storey Creative Industries Centre) and I have just spent the last two days in a seminar run by Interact EU helping us prepare for and execute effectively our PROUD INTERREG project. Delivered by Katerina Staneva and Tomasz Petrykowski, two highly engaging coordinators form Interact. This group, working from Denmark in the NW Europe are tasked with ensuring there is effective knowledge exchange between the numerous programs the EU fund.
One of the stimulating conversations with these guys over dinner was the role of designing knowledge exchange. It interesting that Interact have 1) a set menu of sessions that they can modify somewhat covering aspects of INTERREG projects 2) This is about knowledge exchange. We talked about the need to be innovative in the form as well as the content of the workshops they deliver. Katerina and Tomasz were very interested in the Creative IDEAS and IDAS at Daresbury projects and the design of activities specifically for EU program managers. Also we had some ideas around how to exploit peer-to-peer experience in groups. It feels as though the investment in some interesting techniques would be repaid through the number of times across Europe.
My interest in this is that developing KE tools that facilitate the experience and capabilities of the trainers and facilitators in place while also promoting innovation and risk-taking is very interesting in terms of interaction research. Tomasz was keen to come and see one of our imagination labs in the flesh, I`m happy to oblige but the bespoke nature of the activities we personally deliver might not give the most useful view, we try and make every interaction unique.
Leon Cruickshank