We host and participate in a range of events and conferences throughout the year. In an effort to make the most of any gathering we take steps to show people as much as we can of our work and thinking and give them the space in which to share their experiences with each other.
We have a large network of current and past clients, associates and friends of Sparknow. We encourage and often initiate mutually beneficial introductions within our network and host interactive workshops and gatherings with a guest speaker or discussion topic.
For more information on previous and forthcoming events in our calendar follow the links below:
We organise events, based on demand and/or opportunity. They range from full day workshops to evening gatherings with guest speakers. Such events usually involve a diverse group of people from our network but can also be arranged to cater to your needs.
For more information on the different types of events we run, please read on.
Often our client experiences generate rich patterns of insight that are worth sharing with the wider public. To create room for this we periodically organise open workshops to impart new knowledge and practical techniques that can be put to immediate use. These events are thoughtfully conceived and delivered and are competitively priced.
In the past we have run workshops about
- organisational storytelling
- communities of practice
- the role of physical space in creating effective work practices
Please contact us to register your interest.
Our associates regularly speak at conferences and events. We would love you to come along and meet us there.
Some of our past speaking engagements include:
- Ark conference 'Managing for Health and Social Care'London, April 2004- Fiona Incledon and Victoria Ward facilitated an interactive session called 'Developing and nurturing effective communities of practice.'
- 'Golden Fleece', Washington DC, April 2004 - Victoria Ward and Carol Russell were invited to the fourth annual meeting of the leading community exploring storytelling in organisations. They drew on recent practice to demonstrate how we use artefacts to contain and evoke otherwise hidden narratives around our identity as a community of both nomads and residents, mixing the familiar with the unfamiliar, the exotic and the homely.
- 'Women in the Workplace', London, March 2004 - Victoria Ward spoke about the evolution of physical workspace and current and future trends at the Women's Library.
- The 2nd Gurteen Knowledge Conference, London, November 2003 - Victoria Ward and Elizabeth Lank facilitated an interactive session entitled, Building and Sustaining Communities which looked at knowledge in terms of communities and networks.
- ISIDA's 'In Search of Time' Conference Palermo, May 2003 - Stephanie Colton and Angela Dove spoke as two of the co-authors of the Sparkpress publication, Slow Knowledge: uses of the postcard in re-forming organisational time, place and meaning.
- Aslib 'Virtual Communities' Conference, London, May 2003 - Victoria Ward and Neil Nokes facilitated a session about the role of virtual communities in a modern workplace.
- 'Organisational Knowledge, Learning and Capabilities' Conference, Barcelona, April 2003 - Aidan Prior spoke as the co-author of the Sparkpress publication, People and Patterns: a case study of the relationship between risk management and knowledge management in financial services
- Ark Conference 'Action-Enabled Learning: the power of narrative', New York, April 2002 - Victoria Ward spoke about storytelling as long, slow knowledge .'
Previous sparkevents include:
- June 2004 - 'Engaging the whole person, building communities' - An evening dedicated to the exploration of individuality and community. Marion Nasskau in conversation with Elizabeth Lank about her dissertation on how the BBC Neighbourhood Gardener's Scheme can learn lessons from the American Master Gardener's Scheme. Carol Russell in conversation with Aidan Prior about her time with the Golden Fleece community in Washington - a group of people working on the purposeful use of storytelling inside organisations. A record of key insights was made on our public blog.
- August 2003 - Anton Baumohl hosted a wine tasting evening and encouraged attendees to explore business creativity.
- March 2003 - Five Sparknow associates guided members of 'The Coffeemachine' which is a knowledge management network run by alumni of Cass Business School, around the new Cass Business School Building. The Sparknow tour guides explained to their groups how the design of the building positively impacted upon the flow of knowledge.
- February 2003 - Ahmad Khalidi, co-author of 'Track 2 Diplomacy; The Middle East and Beyond' was interviewed by Noemi Fabry in front of an appreciative audience. He spoke liberally about the power of informal negotiation and its part in making formal decisions possible.
- January 2003 - 'Object-ivity' - Award-winning artist Peter Reder, whose work has been described as 'visual poetry' facilitated a day of walking, talking and discovery at Toynbee Studios in Aldgate exploring the role of artefacts creating a sense of place and collective memory.
- November 2002 - Ross Dawson joined us to discuss and promote his new book 'Living Networks'.
- May 2002 - Sparknow organised an event facilitated by Clive Holtham and Angela Dove where attendees were encouraged to look at their individual approaches to workspace and some of their collective issues surrounding remote working.
- June 2001 - Neil Mullarkey gave us improvisation training.
- May 2000 - Mark Field from The Library Association (now CILIP) and Christine Atha, then at the ICA, were interviewed about the role of curation and classification in an information society. A thought-provoking discussion followed.
- July 1999 - Judah Passow - one of the founders of Network - came to see us after launching Further Vision online and showed us some of the digital photojournalism essays he had developed in the ICA experimental lab, in an exploration of what the small screen (computers) holds for photojournalism.
These more informal gatherings and are offered to all friends of Sparknow including our network of consultants and clients past and present. Most often these are evening get-togethers that serve to reconnect those in our network with each other. As hosts we warmly invite our guests to bring their news and a good bottle of wine.
