Collaborate to Innovate – reflecting on the success of our KTP Yorkshire event

What began as a concept in the Autumn of last year, finally took place at the Malmaison hotel in Leeds on Tuesday 25 April 2023. This joint event was formed in partnership with seven other Universities in the Yorkshire region including University of Leeds, Leeds Trinity University, University of Huddersfield, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Sheffield, University of York and York St John University.

The basis for the event was born out of a regional bid for funding from Innovate UK to build capacity and raise awareness of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP).

Events are notoriously difficult to plan and require a keen eye for attention to detail - even more so when you have over seven minds and matters to consider and a three-month deadline in which to both plan, and deliver!

Luckily, the KTP Yorkshire team are a great group of people who all wanted to achieve the same goal - celebrating KTP and letting more businesses, academics and key partners in on ‘the secret’. So, what actually was the goal? Well - in simple terms - to tell as many potential new connections as possible about this fantastic programme, talk about how it could potentially transform a business, or perhaps carve the next steps for an academic looking to build relationships with industry, while satisfying their research interests. To do this, we decided to run a themed line up of speakers, to attract interest from a range of sectors and areas of expertise.

The day began with a buzz of anticipation, opened by Leeds Beckett Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, Professor Silke Machold, who summarised the strength of a strong KTP profile to our institution, setting the scene for the day and sparking thoughts.

Shortly after, the baton was passed to a key regional speaker, Mark Roberts – Interim Chair of the Leeds City Region LEP. As the title of the event suggested, it was a pretty important part of the day to talk about what growth looks like in our region, and how connecting with universities could help with this. At this point I sat back and reflected, I scanned the room and fully appreciated the work it had taken to bring our ideas to life, to see nods of engagement really solidified that we were delivering to the brief.

When the team thought about how to inspire a business to engage with a university, we decided what they really want to hear is from someone who has actually done it. Andrew Glen – Managing Director at Riverside Greetings Ltd - spoke about their journey of engaging with Leeds Beckett University, from those first conversations to becoming a fully fledged advocate for KTP, and now even considering a second KTP project!

Despite sore legs from running the London Marathon a few days prior, Andrew held the attention of the audience beautifully. Andrew described the team at Leeds Beckett University as friends, which sends a strong message. KTP isn’t an off the shelf problem solved by a three-month (expensive!)  consultant, KTP builds long lasting partnerships that even after they have completed continue to thrive.

Despite a rookie error in forgetting a presentation clicker – the logistics of the day ran well. It’s amazing how you can think you’ve ticked every box on your checklist when planning events but inevitably there is always a hiccup. And the fact that that was the biggest hiccup – well that’s a win.

The rest of the day heard insights from academic speakers - covering topics such as Productivity, Advanced Manufacturing and Occupational Health Psychology - leading to interesting questions and conversations in the breaks and networking opportunities. There were informative sessions led by Advisers from the Knowledge Transfer Network at Innovate UK on the KTP application process and eligibility criteria, and inspiring sessions from current and former KTP Associates – the project managers on the ground delivering the projects and bringing them to life, a key part in the KTP journey.

I’ve attended enough events to know that post-lunch is always a tough gig, we called upon Claire Brumby, ex-Dragons Den turned Business Performance Coach, to tell her story of growth, to motivate and inspire and think about how asking the tough questions can push you out of your comfort zone.

A lot of what she talked about resonated, even if you’re not a business owner you could apply the tools she spoke about to your personal life – this really broke up the day, allowing the room to really take a step back and digest for a moment.

Wrapping up the day with a Q&A, the team felt proud – there were still people in the room, which for a full day FREE event required commitment. Early feedback responses suggest the day was well received - 33% couldn’t pick their favourite session from the day because they were all so good.

Follow up conversations are taking place, reports have been submitted to Innovate UK measuring success and potential outputs - two big ticks in raising awareness and future proofing our KTP capacity for growth.

Missed the event? Interested in discussing potential collaboration? Contact us today!