In honour of the un-finished paper, the marketing department at the University of Wolverhampton, in conjunction with Sheffield Hallam University, is holding a one-day ‘un-conference’ which aims to bring together PR academics to explore undeveloped and unfinished ideas. It provides researchers with an opportunity to gain valuable feedback on embryonic ideas and to rediscover the fun in research.
It is aimed at anyone who wants to share and discuss their ideas in a supportive and collegiate environment with the aim of publishing new research.
The day will begin by exploring the promise and excitement of new research and privileging the research journey over the destination, with a keynote by musical theatre lecturer, Sarah Whitfield, from the University of Wolverhampton, entitled Scrappy paperwork and beautiful fragments: our incomplete archives:
As researchers and academics the need to finish and make complete outputs can be at best nerve wracking, and at the other completely paralysing: the ghosts of what we haven’t finished seem to haunt what we could yet start. But what if we change how we view the ideas we have for projects, the things we wanted to do but never could, and the things that didn’t work, we might be able to see them in a radically different way. What if we could value our own personal archive of incomplete ideas, of beautiful fragments, and use it to nurture what we do or make next? This is a story of how I found my way out of three years of writer’s block, by accepting half-finished ideas, bits and pieces of what Walter Benjamin so beautifully calls ‘scrappy paperwork’ as valuable on its own terms. By messing about with the unfinished and seeing where it gets us – creative possibilities for what we do next start to emerge.
Following a short break, delegates can choose from one of three themed workshops in which to present their ‘half-baked’ idea/s. Themes under consideration are PR & Business, PR & Society, and PR & Politics.
The day will close with a call to arms from animation expert, Emily Mantell, An idea is born, followed by a drinks reception sponsored by Sheffield Hallam University.
The conference will cost £25, to include lunch and drinks reception.
To register, please visit https://tellingstoriesinpublicrelations.wordpress.com
