Webinars Year 3 (2020/21)

Creative Spark webinar series in Year 3 (2020/21)

Creative Spark webinar series was hosted by Newcastle University and the Centre for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications in June 2021. Click below to find out more about each event from the Creative Spark webinar series:

Creative Fuse: supporting regional business innovation activities to creative and cultural enterprises (June 1 2021)

Dr Sapsed and Mr Adamson shared about the experience of Creative Fuse, a truly unique partnership between the North East’s five universities working alongside industry, cultural organisations, charities and the public sector to support creative and cultural enterprises in the North East of England.

Dr Jonathan Sapsed is Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Newcastle University Business School. He is Principal Investigator of Creative Fuse North East, which aims to support innovation and research-led growth in the region. Jonathan has researched innovation in digital firms in Silicon Valley in the US, UK video games developers, as well as companies such as Disney, Sun Microsystems, Ericsson, and QinetiQ. He is a Co-Investigator of the AHRC’s Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC), researching clustering and international competitiveness.

Mark Adamson became Project Director of Creative Fuse North East in March 2018, having previously led and coordinated the delivery of the University of Sunderland’s Creative Fuse activity. Mark has over 18 years of experience working across the creative, cultural and digital sectors and broader knowledge economy. He has operated at senior strategic level commissioning and investment and on into provision of direct business support and advice at regional, national and international levels. In addition to his role at Creative Fuse, and for the past ten years, Mark also works as an independent consultant supporting a broad range of clients across creative, innovation and economic development projects.

Photos from the event:

Spinning out best practice (June 3 2021)

Newcastle University has created 20 new spin-out companies since October 2016 and 8 new spin-out companies since the start of the COVID lockdown. In this Creative Spark Project webinar, Ms Lizzie Withington talked through Newcastle University commercialisation best practise, from the initiation, formation, approval, launch and early-stage funding of new spin-out companies. The processes that support our success from moving research into well-funded, high tech Spin Outs and the Northern Accelerator programme which underpins the path to Academic startup.

Lizzie Withington works with researchers, businesses and organisations to help them use technology to change, grow and innovate. A conduit for change, working with Academics and CEO’s to take ideas and aspirations and grounding them in technology solutions that endeavour to change the world. As Company Creation Manager, she is responsible for commercialising University IP, particularly through the development of business plans and the formation and funding of spin-out companies. Project Manager of Northern Accelerator project. As a Lecturer, responsible for teaching postgraduate students Innovation and Entrepreneurship within the Business School and the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering.

Photos from the event:

‌

‌‌

‌

Taking a hands-on design thinking exercise online (June 8 2021)

In this third Creative Spark Project webinar Dr Fiona Whitehurst explained how (and why) she and a colleague use Stanford University School's five stage design thinking model in the classroom. She then shared how the hands-on group classroom activity designed to encourage design thinking was adapted to become a hands-on activity for an online environment, what worked well, and what was more challenging.

Dr Fiona Whitehurst is a Senior Lecturer and Director of (Research) Impact at Newcastle University Business School. She has been involved with British Council's Creative Spark Higher Education Programme since Newcastle University's partnership with the Centre for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications began in 2018. She hosted a study tour for Azerbaijani Educators to Newcastle in May 2019 and visited Baku later in the year to run a Createathon, an innovative workshop that sees talented students working with creative enterprises to provide fresh insight on their business challenges, plans and goals. Her research focuses on engaging with micro-enterprises to understand their processes and practices through in-depth qualitative research. Within the Business School she teaches a postgraduate module called Creativity: Theories and Applications on our MA Arts, Business and Creativity and MSc Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship degrees.

Photos from the event:

Setting up and managing rural enterprise hubs/clusters/coworking. The case of the The National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (June 10 2021)

Support for rural enterprises is crucial in many rural regions. In this fourth Creative Spark Project webinar Dr Merrell shared findings from his recent research regarding lessons learnt about setting up and managing rural enterprise hubs/clusters/coworking spaces across England. Dr Gorton expanded the discussion with an introduction the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise located in Newcastle University.

Dr Matthew Gorton is a Professor of Marketing at Newcastle University Business School. He is Deputy Director of the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise and co-ordinates the EU Horizon 2020 Project Strength2Food. He has undertaken work previously for the World Bank, OECD, European Commission and FAO and is an associate editor of the Journal of Agricultural Economics.

Dr Ian Merrell has recently joined NICRE as a ESRC postdoctoral research fellow. Ian previously completed his BSc, MSc and PhD at the Centre for Rural Economy (Newcastle University), focusing on governance structures, innovation, enterprise and public participation. Following this, he joined the Centre for Rural Policy Research (University of Exeter) as a research associate and remains an honorary member. He has experience working on three EU INTERREG projects, provided consultancy to multiple municipalities across Europe looking to create Rural Enterprise Hubs as well as coaching rural tourism businesses on becoming more sustainable and innovative.

Photos from the event:

‌‌‌‌

Bringing Entrepreneurship Modules Online (June 17 2021)

In this fifth Creative Spark Project webinar, two entrepreneurship scholars shared their experience bringing entrepreneurship modules online. Dr Jonathan Kimmitt will shared his expertise about delivering a final year undergraduate course on social entrepreneurship pitched to students as a potential business response to the pandemic. From some early insights, the advantages and disadvantages of online learning with this type of specialist entrepreneurship module were highlighted from a practical and pedagogic point of view. Abdullah Al Manum expanded the previous discussion with his experience moving undergraduate entrepreneurship modules online at the University of Northampton.

Dr Jonathan Kimmitt is a Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at Newcastle University Business School. His research and teaching focuses on issues related to entrepreneurship, international development, social investment, and poverty, as well as social entrepreneurship and microfinance.

Abdullah Al Mamun is a Lecturer in Sustainable Business at the University of Northampton. His teaching areas are related to social responsibility and impact, and sustainable business practices. His research interests relate to sustainable entrepreneurship, sustainable business practices of SMEs, sustainability paradox and ethnic minority entrepreneurship. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Alongside his research and teaching, Abdullah runs a social enterprise, mohioshi, committed to girls and womxn in rural Bangladesh through supporting their education and attempts to bridge the large gap in achieving gender equality within society.

Photos from the event:

Virtual Createathon Toolkit (June 22 2021)

One of the activities undertaken in Baku through the Creative Spark Project was a 'Createathon’. A Createathon is an intensive workshop programme which brings together teams of talented students, academic staff, and small enterprises to work on the enterprises' current business challenges and opportunities. With the pandemic this was brought online by Fiona Whitehurst, Paul Richter, and Wendy Parvin. Dr Richter and Dr Whitehurst introduced the Toolkit they are developing to enable other educators to deliver a Createathon either virtually or in person.

Dr Paul Richter is Lecturer in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Newcastle University Business School, and also ‘Virtual Createathon’ facilitator at Creative Spark. His research interests' centers on the language and practice of innovation and entrepreneurship in multiple organizational settings. In recent years, he has researched these issues in a range of sectoral and geographical contexts, including the creative economies of Azerbaijan and East Africa.

Dr Fiona Whitehurst is a Senior Lecturer and Director of (Research) Impact at Newcastle University Business School. She has been involved with British Council’s Creative Spark Higher Education Programme since Newcastle University’s partnership with the Centre for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications began in 2018. She hosted a study tour for Azerbaijani Educators to Newcastle in May 2019 and visited Baku later in the year to run a Createathon, an innovative workshop that sees talented students working with creative enterprises to provide fresh insight on their business challenges, plans and goals. Her research focuses on engaging with micro-enterprises to understand their processes and practices through in-depth qualitative research. Within the Business School she teaches a postgraduate module called Creativity: Theories and Applications on our MA Arts, Business and Creativity and MSc Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship degrees.

Photos from the event:

The value of the threshold concept framework to entrepreneurship and enterprise (June 24 2021)

Dr Lucy Hatt presented the threshold concept framework and what opportunities it offers for entrepreneurship and enterprise educators, particularly for building educator teams and developing curricula. She shared some findings from her research including candidate threshold concepts for entrepreneurial thinking and explain how she has used these to inform the development of the curriculum for a PG module in Innovation and Change.

Dr Lucy Hatt is Senior Lecturer in Leadership Development and Entrepreneurship in Newcastle University Business School. She is a member of the Leadership Development and Organisational Futures (LDOF) team who focus on the development and delivery of Executive Education and Life Long Learning. She leads three post-experience, post-graduate modules in Innovation, Change, Enterprise and Personal and Professional Development. She had 17 years’ management and consultancy experience in industry before changing direction and becoming an academic in 2009. She was awarded her PhD in 2020 from the School of Education at Durham University which she completed in four years part time, and her thesis was titled, “ Using the threshold concept framework to enhance entrepreneurship curricula in higher education. She continues to research and publish on the application of the threshold concept framework in enterprise and entrepreneurship education.

Photos from the event

Using animations and social media to motivate and inspire (June 29 2021)

To support the promotion and delivery of enterprise programs, Newcastle University has created six short animation video resources. In this webinar Dr Victoria Mountford-Brown presented the videos and discussed how they can be utilized in your work. These videos will ba available soon on the Newcastle University Business School's YouTube channel.

Dr Victoria Mountford-Brown joined the Business School in July 2019 as Lecturer in Creativity and Entrepreneurship. Her research interest lies around (Entrepreneurial) Identities and Student/Researcher Development in relation to Enterprise and Entrepreneurship education. Vicky previously worked in Newcastle University's Careers Service in the Enterprise Team, developing and delivering cross-faculty modules, ACTION For Impact, and supporting cross-faculty extra- and co-curricular activities. Previously, Dr Mountford-Brown held roles in Curriculum Development (Newcastle University Careers Service), Academic Development (Higher Education Academy), and running businesses in research consultancy and hospitality.