Open Residential
The full Open programme begins with a residential course featuring workshops, simulations and guest talks from academics who have successfully delivered collaborative projects. Facilitators, successful academics and Open participants all present, generating an atmosphere of solidarity and collaborative enterprise.
Connections to institutional support services are also made available to help participants find sources of funding and expert support.
The residential component takes place at one of our fantastic venues. Sessions include:
Roomsourcing
In this lively session participants explore the potential for finding a collaborative partner in the room. With their new partner they will generate a new project idea.
Making a leader
Researchers express many different characteristics when leading teams and forming new collaborative relationships. In groups you will identify the characteristics you associate with leadership. Together we will map out a shared definition of a leader.
Finding and guiding
What techniques can you use at conferences or other events to improve your chances of finding collaborators? How can you help people you work with to gain confidence in working with others, challenging their assumptions when necessary? In this academic networking session, each team splits into a ‘finder’ who searches for collaborative partners and a ‘guider’ who will deploy coaching and guidance techniques to support their team member.
Podcasting
What is the best approach to interest the public or non-traditional funders in a project, when they have little knowledge about your discipline? In this session, you will experiment with short-form audio communication by producing a short podcast describing a group project. This session will introduce Audacity, the leading open source audio editor, and participants will plan, script, record and edit a podcast.
Tales from the frontline
Two inspiring academic guest speakers will describe the successful collaborations they have been involved with. What decisions did they make, and why?
Delegate presentations
A rapid-fire format enables all participants in a residential course to present their work, or a hot topic they are interested in.
Pathways to impact
Participants explore the pathways through which they might connect their core membership to a wider periphery of interested parties, increasing the likelihood of generating social or economic impact from their work.
Rockets
In this simulation of collaboration under pressure, teams work against the clock to design, build and launch solid fuel rockets to a height of up to 200 feet. Always the most popular workshop with participants, Rockets builds trust and generates a memorable, fun experience to anchor the programme.
Team roles
Participants consider whether the time pressures of the Rockets exercise led them to take a particular role, examine their team working style and indentify the roles needed for their own collaborative endeavours.
Networking and relaxation
Plenty of time is made available for networking (when the real work happens) and relaxation (when the learning sinks in).
