Guest blog by KEVRI
The team at KEVRI reflects on their experience as a first time exhibitor at #PrAConf22
KEVRI is the brainchild of university lecturer Natalie Campion, graphic designer Corin Mynett and education journalist Emily Devonald.
Before forming our business, we spent a year at Falmouth University researching the role Knowledge Exchange plays within higher education.
We channelled our curiosities into mid-pandemic zoom chats with 60+ professionals across the KE sector and soon found common challenges of KE data capture, evidencing the social value of KE projects and showcasing compelling KE narratives.
After many insightful 1-1 discussions, we wanted to find a collaborative space where higher education professionals met to discuss pressing topics such as KE impact capture methods, the power of student KE, and how equality, diversity, and inclusion among KE projects are reflected within the sector.
That’s when we discovered PraxisAuril.
After attending the 2021 PrA online conference and enjoying KE-centric conversations with fellow attendees, we knew that this was a community we wanted to engage with and seized the opportunity of exhibiting at their first live person to person conference since 2019 at #PrAConf22- the perfect moment to launch our KE-specific software that demystifies and captures KE data.
Armed with buckets of branded rock and our KE reporting software solution, KEVRI Chief Executive Officer Natalie Campion and Chief Product Officer Corin Mynett ventured to Brighton.
‘’After so many remote conversations during covid, it was great to see everyone in the same room building relationships, sparking partnerships and understanding what others in the sector are trying to do to push the KE initiatives within their institutions forward,’’ said Natalie.
PRAXISAURIL SUPPORTS UNIVERSITY- SME COLLABORATIONS
A key benefit of the recent PraxisAuril conference for SMES is the opportunity to interact with KE practitioners and enthusiasts across the UK.
‘’During the conference, Corin and I witnessed how welcoming and collaborative the KE sector is. We met so many incredible people who showed a real interest in what we are building and how we support the higher education sector to showcase their entrepreneurial collaborations.’’
As Corin will tell you, we take feedback very seriously at KEVRI and follow a strict build, measure, learn approach.
By receiving a diverse array of perspectives at our exhibition stand, we had the chance to collate real-time product feedback and form relationships with many KE practitioners across the Praxis network.
‘’The Brighton conference enabled us to launch our product, share our developments and grant demos on-the-spot. I had many discussions with people from diverse institutions and industries around how to optimise their data capture processes and their KE opportunities with KEVRI. The feedback we received from PraxisAuril has played an integral part in progressing to the next version of our product,’’ said Corin.
BE AT THE CENTRE OF PIVOTAL KE CONVERSATIONS
We are always on the lookout for key industry updates to keep our software solution and our knowledge up-to-date. Hence why Corin jumped at the chance of attending a HESA- run workshop on HE-BCI survey metrics at the conference.
Alongside 149 other delegates’, Corin enjoyed discussing how KE values could be both social and economic.
‘’This session was brilliant! It enabled us to discuss ‘possible’ and ‘impossible’ measurables, and internal and external drivers around measuring social value. Then we had the chance to say what we think should stay, what should go and what we need from the HE-BCI metrics. It’s great to know that we all had a say in future HE-BCI developments.’’
BECOME A PART OF A WELCOMING KE COMMUNITY
Exhibiting at the Brighton conference, attending the networking sessions and interacting with workshops led us to becoming a member of the PraxisAuril community.
Both KEVRI team members arrived back from the conference feeling energised from the co-collaborative environment that Praxis provided.
‘’I’m delighted that KEVRI’s first experience of a PrA conference coincided with one of our biggest and best events ever. I hope that all the contacts they made will support their excellent team to go from strength to strength,’ said PraxisAuril CEO Maxine Ficarra.
‘’We are so grateful for the ongoing support from Maxine and her team,’’ adds Natalie, ‘’It’s important for us as an SME to understand the pain points and the problems that arise during university partnerships and for us to be in a space where we can collaborate with fellow KE enthusiasts to figure out solutions of what’s missing in the KE sector.’’
If you’re interested in finding out more about the KEVRI journey or wish to share some KE insights with us, book a discovery call with us here.
As PraxisAuril stated in their 2022 Brighton conference title, ‘KE is a people business’, and we love meeting fellow enthusiasts