Exchange – from The Conversation

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Exchange is a conference for university communications and research impact staff featuring guest speakers, panel discussions and workshops discussing issues related to communications and impact.

Exchange aims to bring together colleagues from communications offices and research offices who might benefit from working more closely with each other in their joint efforts to ensure their institution's research travels widely and has a life after publication. It is an opportunity to hear from experts, discuss the issues, share skills and best practice, and meet colleagues from across the sector.

You can sign up for announcements and news about future Exchange events (low volume list).

We would love to hear your thoughts on previous Exchange events, and on what future events should cover. Please get in touch: michael.parker@theconversation.com

Due to the exceptional heat and the problems that posed for speakers and attendees coming from across the country (and further afield), for our fifth Exchange we had to take the exceptional decision to cancel the in-person event and move Exchange online. It was a shame not to see each other in person, but we were glad to be able bring attendees the same line-up of speakers online. You can see the session recordings here.

Exchange aims to feature speakers and topics that are most relevant and useful to university communications and research impact staff. To help ensure each year's agenda hits the spot we're very glad to have the support of the Exchange steering group, who volunteer their time to work with Exchange's organiser to suggest topics and themes their colleagues would be interested in. Made up of a mix of communications and research impact staff, we're very grateful for their assistance.

If you'd like to join the steering group, or have ideas about topics or speakers to feature at Exchange, please get in touch.

Helen Breece, Public Relations Manager, Nottingham Trent University

Craig Brierley, Head of Research Communications and Engagement, University of Cambridge

Pete Castle, External Communications & PR Manager, University of Reading

Claire Donovan, Professor of Education, University of Greenwich

Carlos Galan-Diaz, research consultant, formerly Acting Director of Research & Innovation Services, University of St Andrews

Tracey Roberts, Head of Communications of Marketing, Bangor University

Fiona Tyrell, Research Communications Manager, Trinity College Dublin

Saskia Walcott, Chief Executive and impact consultant, Walcott Communications

Thanks also to former members:

Verity Buckley, Research Impact lead, Faculty of Natural, Mathematical and Engineering Sciences, Kings College London

Caroline Knowles, Head of Research Communications and Engagement, University of Reading

Jackie Reynolds, Research Impact Officer School of Medical Sciences, University of Manchester

Sue Smith, Head of Press and Communications, Aston University

The fourth Exchange took place in July and was attended by around 100 university communications and research impact staff from more than 60 institutions. You can catch up with what happened at the event, see speakers' presentations and watch recordings of the sessions from the Exchange 2025 page - and also from the Exchange YouTube channel.

The Media Impact Guide is one tool available to help university communications and research impact teams work together in order to use the power of the media to generate and demonstrate research impact. Created by Professor Mark Reed of Fast Track Impact, working with The Conversation and with input from The Conversation's member institutions, the guide provides an overview of the issues and more detailed guidance, tools and techniques that can be applied to harness media exposure as a means to both reach a wide audience and capture the evidence needed to demonstrate research impact.

The Media Impact Guide and Toolkit is hosted on the Fast Track Impact website. It is best approached by first reading the chapter overviews, and then diving into the detail as required. If you've read the guide and put it to use, we'd love to hear from you – please get in touch.

This topic was discussed at the final session of Exchange 2023, and will undoubtedly make an appearance at future events.

Review the day, download presentations, and catch up on sessions you missed via full recordings here.

Exchange 2024 took place on July 5, with discussions on key AI tools, how to encourage academics to engage with research communication, talking to Gen Z and younger audiences and working with policymakers.

Exchange 2023 took place on June 30. Our keynote speaker was communications and analytics specialist Andrew Bruce Smith. Chair of the CIPR's AI in PR panel and co-author of its recent report on the subject, Andrew spoke about the potential that chatGPT and other AI tools hold across a range of disciplines and uses. Read more about Exchange 2023 here.

Exchange made its debut on a sunny day in July, with around 80 communications and research staff joining us in central London, for a day of discussions with guest speakers, panel discussions and networking. Read more about Exchange 2022 here.