Public Event toolkit materials - the UCL School of Slavonic and East ...

Destination London Roberts Skills Initiative Workshops
This report includes a Report, followed by a Toolkit with a series of Template Materials
for public engagement events.
Destination London was a set of events held at UCL in Oct-Dec 2009, organized around the
experiences of East Europeans in London and marking the completion of the ‘East Looks
West’ travel writing project. The main thrust of the programme was public engagement:
disseminating the results of SSEES research in travel writing (migration, intercultural
interaction and globalization) to an audience of users beyond academia, and bringing a lay
public into UCL in order to promote the College as a resource for its London-wide
community.
As a part of the programme of events, the organizers (Wendy Bracewell and Tony White) bid
for and received Roberts Skills Initiative funding for a pilot project to use these events to:
--provide a public engagement skills ‘landscaping’ workshop targeted specifically at
SSEES/UCL/CEELBAS Arts and Humanities postgraduates;
--to develop and run a two-day hands-on radio broadcast technical workshop, in partnership
with Resonance FM, London’s Arts radio station, for SSEES/UCL/CEELBAS postgraduates;
--to develop template materials for future public engagement workshops.
The funding covered a postgraduate student coordinator (Aneliya Kuzmanova) and the
technical costs associated with the radio workshop.
1) The public engagement workshop for Arts and Humanities was held on 19 October at
SSEES, with people from across the public engagement spectrum explaining their experiences
and perspectives, followed by a question-and-answer session. It included the following
speakers:
Emma Wakelin (Associate Director of Programmes at the AHRC), speaking on knowledge
transfer, funding possibilities, the social and cultural impact of arts and humanities research
;
Xerxes Mazda (Head of Learning and Audiences, The British Museum), on working with
museums ;
Mike Phillips (cross-cultural curator, Tate Britain; trustee, Heritage Lottery Fund), on arts and
humanities research for external audiences ;
Tony White (novelist and publisher; Leverhulme Writer-in-Residence at UCL SSEES), on
writing for a non-academic audience, and getting published
;
Claire Thomson (UCL Scandinavian Studies; director, Norvik Press), on making links with
local communities, and on combining scholarship with publishing for a broad public audience
;
Steve Cross (UCL Public Engagement Unit), on how to use the UCL Public Engagement Unit
to get help with public outreach, .

It was advertised with the following introduction: “Arts and humanities research makes a
significant impact on the world beyond academia, from stimulating innovation to improving
the quality of our lives. There are many different ways for scholars to engage with external
audiences, including collaboration with community organizations, non-profit bodies,
government or industry.
Do you have ideas for taking your research to a non-academic audience? Want to learn
from the experience of others? This 2-hour workshop, organised by colleagues at UCL
SSEES and the UCL Public Engagement Unit, is planned as a ‘landscaping’ session, with a
panel of people from across the public engagement spectrum explaining their experiences and
perspectives, followed by a question-and-answer session. The idea is to provide an
introduction to a variety of public engagement possibilities, and show how postgraduates
might take advantage of them in their own work.”
Sign-ups and advertising for the workshop were administered though the UCL Graduate
School Skills Development website (http://courses.grad.ucl.ac.uk/), and by Aimee Jenner for
CEELBAS (and advertised on the CEELBAS website). It was also advertised through the
Destination London website. It was attended by 36 postgraduates from SSEES (7), Bartlett
(7), Slade (5), Geography (4), Wellcome (1), Scandinavian Studies (1), Archaeology (3), CES
(1), Anthropology (1), STS (1), English (1), History (3), Hebrew & Jewish Studies (1), and a
number of drop-ins.
Evaluations from the event were very positive: ‘the most useful and inspiring of anything
organized by the Graduate School’ was one. The Q&A session certainly suggested that the
participants had ideas about possible ways of using the information and contacts. One
student, Julia Voegel, plans to approach SSEES for a public art installation.
The sessions were recorded, and podcasts of the presentations have been edited and are hosted
on the Destination London website for future use.
2) The Resonance radio skills workshop took a hands-on format, with limited numbers (10
UCL postgraduates). The workshop was developed specifically for a postgraduate public
engagement agenda by the Resonance team, producers Sarah Nicol-Seldon and Mark Robins,
and ran over several days, using the Destination London events and material as the focus.
Skills included training and practice in interviewing and recording; postproduction and
editing; podcasting and broadcasting. The result is an hour-long ‘Clear Spot’ radio
programme broadcast 11 Dec 2009, including the postgraduates’ interviews and recordings of
Destination London events; and a series of podcasts available through Resonance’s website
and the Destination London website.
The podcasts are now publicly available and have been advertised on the SSEES website,
Destination London, Resonance and Facebook. The students participating in the workshop
have been uniformly positive about the experience. Resonance itself has used the experience
to put together a package of materials to offer such a workshop to other potential partners.
Wendy Bracewell
Template Materials

It would be very easy to replicate the public engagement workshop to go alongside almost
any sort of public event – or even as a stand-alone workshop. The two-hour format ran about
80 minutes of presentation, 40 minutes of Q&A. Presenters were asked to speak for about 10
minutes, introducing their organization’s role in public engagement, or their experiences of
this. The speakers were drawn from a range of background: funding organizations, arts
institutions, publishing, education. All the presenters were keen to take part, and most had
presentations ready. Most were London-based, and therefore not expensive. A simple email
describing the event, its purpose, and asking them to contribute was enough to set it up. Most
of the speakers were people with whom I already had contacts, but this wasn’t necessary. The
UCL Public Engagement Unit (Steve Cross) was very helpful in adding possible speakers
(and in providing a summing up session on UCL facilities).
Other sources for speakers might include: Leverhulme Trust; Wellcome Trust; BFI; The
National Archive; other London archives, both government funded and community-based;
English Heritage and the National Trust; bookstores, publishers, arts organizations – the list is
endless, and depends of the sort of events the workshop might run in parallel with.
Running such a workshop is fairly simple, given the assistance of the UCL Graduate School
Skills Development unit (http://courses.grad.ucl.ac.uk/). The first contact should be with Ben
Colvill (ben.colvill@ucl.ac.uk), who can advise of putting together an introduction and on
target audiences. You’ll need to set a date and book a room through UCL Room Bookings
(https://cmis.adcom.ucl.ac.uk:4443/roomBookings/roomBookingsHomePage.html). Once
booking has closed, the Grad School Skills Development people will send an attendance list
broken down into departments – very useful.
A radio skills workshop would be harder to replicate, though the producers at Resonance FM
were very enthusiastic about this event, and have developed a template themselves. If the
money is available, it would be worth running these again. (The contact there for the time
being is Sarah Nicol-Seldon seznicolseldon@googlemail.com, but a better contact is Tony
White, who is on their governing board.)
However, it’s worth thinking about other hands-on skills that could be converted into
workshops: in publishing, advertising, IT, speaking to different types of groups; etc. Here is
key to find partners in the appropriate places: the resonance workshop worked so well
because we had a good link. But UCL might also be able to provide appropriate partners
from within the College.
Wendy Bracewell
Public Event toolkit materials
Template for event management: Eventbrite
• Eventbrite is very easy to use and very practical. One of its greatest advantages is the
opportunity to collect attendee information (where they heard about the event; their

professions; etc.). Answering the questions can be made a prerequisite for registration
for an event.
• Event registration on Eventbrite is only free for free events.
• The Eventbrite events can be advertised on Twitter, Facebook and other social
network sites.
• More than one administrator can be allocated per event.
• The link for an Eventbrite publication can be personalized to one’s own choice.
• A Google map of the event location can be published as well.
Form at http://www.eventbrite.com/
(Fill in fields in R/H column then cut and paste in to the online form)
*= Required
START BUTTON
Email* Enter valid email account name
Password* Memorable password
Confirm Password* Confirm password
SIGN UP Press sign-up button
CREATE AN EVENT
Step 1: Add Event Title* Enter title in type-in box
Step 2: Add Ticket Information* Must create at least 1 ticket for your event to
be published. Must enter Ticket Name*,
Price* (0.00 / Free / Donation format),
Quantity Available*
Step 3: Add Event Details* Introduce your event:
Experience London anew with an evening of
readings and discussion exploring eastern
European perspectives on London and
different approaches to writing about the city.
Join authors, including the celebrated London
writer Iain Sinclair and others, to discover
how writers from eastern Europe are
continuing to create ideas about the
contemporary city.
Personalize the link for your event http://
eventbrite.com
In case you do not specify such the system will
generate a digit combination for your event.
Logo Upload the logo for your event
Step 4: Add When* Starts Dropdown menu DD/MM/YYYY
at Dropdown menu 00:00 PM/AM
Ends Dropdown menu DD/MM/YYYY
at Dropdown menu 00:00 PM/AM
Time Zone Dropdown menu
Step 5: Add Where* Name of your location
Address 1

Additional options instead of physical
address:
Address 2
Type to select a city
Zip/Postal Code
□ Show Google map for this address
Leave as:
Online Event
Unnamed Location
Step 6: Add Host* Organization Name
Organization Description
Step 7: Add Colors Select a Color Theme
Or Choose your own colors
Additional Options (checkboxes) □ List this event in the Eventbrite public
directory and on the Internet
□ Classify and tag your event. (Help your
event get found on Internet search engines.)
□ Password protect your event registration
page.
□ Show number of tickets remaining on the
registration page
□ Show attendee list on the registration page
Once the event has thus been created:
□ Show custom header & footer.
Press relevant button:
Preview
Save & Publish
Save as Draft
Once the event has been saved: Send Invitations
Publish event to Facebook
Manage this Event
What can I do now? Collect Attendee information
Send email invitations
MY EVENTS Search and edit your saved events
Manage Event summary
New Event Checklist
Registration
Collect Custom Information
Add News & Updates
Invite
Create Invitations (Select Recipients,
Schedule Delivery)
Track Status of Invitations
Promote
Publish to Facebook
Add Ticket Form to Website
Add Registration to Website
Create Links for Event
Create Buttons for Event
Display Event Calendar on Site
Display Countdown on Site

Attendees
Attendee Report
Add Attendees
Email Attendees
Orders
View Order Report
Edit Order Confirmations
Sell
Create Discount Codes
Create Affiliate Programs
Use Tracking Links
Day of Event
Print Name Badges
Print Check-In List
Edit Edit all sections of the event
View Ticket Information
Register as Ticket Buyer
First
Name: *
Last
Name: *
Email
Address: *
COMPLETE REGISTRATION
Event Details
When
Hosted By (contact the host)
MY CONTACTS System automatically offers to create list of
contacts through adding all/some of the
contacts from the email account you have
signed up to EventBrite with.
MY TICKETS In this section you can search for your past
and present events as well as tickets for them.
MY ACCOUNT Contact information
Password
Invoices
Email Preferences
Payment Accounts
Multi-User Access
Unused Venues & Organizers
Eventbrite Affiliate Program
API User Key
Close Account
HELP FAQs
Template for UCL event listing form

This ensures that events are listed on the UCL events website, and may be published in the
BrainFood leaflet. (Note that the deadline for inclusion in the printed leaflet is six weeks prior
to the end of the previous term.) The form can be found at
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/submit-events . There is a helpful page of information about
targeting your news items here as well, with further links.
(Fill in fields in R/H column then cut and paste in to the online form)
*= Required
DATE, TIME AND VENUE
Date* Drop down menu - 23
Month* Drop down menu – October
Year* Drop down menu – 2009
Event start* 18:30
Event end* 20:30
Event location* Cruciform LT 1 (confirmed)
Event title Destination London: Writing Cities
Event synopsis* (max 50 words)
Experience London anew with an evening of readings
and discussion exploring eastern European
perspectives on London and different approaches to
writing about the city. Join authors, including the
celebrated London writer Iain Sinclair and others, to
discover how writers from eastern Europe are
continuing to create ideas about the contemporary city.
SPEAKER DETAILS
Title* Dr
Name* Wendy
Dept* Bracewell
Title of lecture* Destination London (chair)
Other speakers (please give details) Iain Sinclair (London). Iain Sinclair is the acclaimed
author of Downriver (winner of the James Tait Black
Memorial Prize and the Encore Award); Landor’s
Tower; White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings; Lights Out
for the Territory; Lud Heat; Rodinsky’s Room (with
Rachel Lichtenstein); Radon Daughters; London
Orbital and Dining on Stones. He is also the editor of
the anthology London: City of Disappearances. He
lives in Hackney, East London. His latest book,
Hackney: That Rose-red Empire is published in the
UK by Hamish Hamilton.
Do people need to book in advance Drop down menu – NO
etc

Cost, if not free
Special venue information for guests (eg
disabled or restricted access)
In the text box below please provide additional information about the event that may be
useful to attendees. E.g. refreshments, to whom the event is open, bookings, time event
finishes, etc.
EXTRA DETAILS
Further information* The event is part of a programme of events,
Destination London: Writing Cities from
Eastern Europe, presenting a range of events
that explore the experiences of eastern
Europeans in London and examine new ways
of perceiving and writing about the city.
Other public events include:
• a book launch, highlighting
publications on east European travel
writing by UCL authors and others;
• the launch of the Balkanising
Bloomsbury project, stories written by
Tony White in the course of his stint
as Leverhulme Trust writer-inresidence
at UCL’s School of
Slavonic and East European Studies;
• a screening of London in Motion, a
series of short documentary films on
east Europeans in London;
• a writing workshop led by Tony
White;
• a programme on Resonance 104.4
FM, London’s arts radio station;
• a book stall; and more.
To find out the details of dates and venues,
see
http://www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/destinationlondon.htm.
The programme is organized by Wendy
Bracewell, School of Slavonic and East
European Studies and director of the AHRC
research project East Looks West: East
European Travel Writing on Europe; and
Tony White, Leverhulme Trust writer-inresidence
at SSEES. It is funded by a bursary
from the Beacons for Public Engagement
scheme, through the UCL Unit for Public
Engagement.

Web link
http://www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/destinationlondon.htm
CONTACT DETAILS
Name* Aneliya Kuzmanova
Department* SSEES
Telephone number*
Email* a.kuzmanova@ucl.ac.uk
Please tick the box below if you would like CHECK BOX
your event to be considered for inclusion in
Brain Food, UCL's public event leaflet.
Please ensure that you have read the
guidelines for inclusion [Word Doc].
SUBMIT BUTTON
Free Listing info:
• Importance: free listing ensured 5.2 % of the attendees at Destination London
• Websites include: TimeOut, Spoonfed (http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/london/), Free
London Listings (for free events: http://freelondonlistings.co.uk/); Culture24
(http://www.culture24.org.uk/sector+info/join+our+network/art72241).
In print media, TimeOut offers free listings, but they must be submitted well in advance.
TimeOut
Contacts:
Jeremy Saunders
Senior Account Manager
Time Out Magazine
(0)207 813 6006 Direct
jeremysaunders@timeout.com
Nina Caplan
Arts Editor
Time Out
Universal House
251 Tottenham Court Rd
London W1T 7AB
020 7813 6084
ninacaplan@timeout.com
Natasha Polyviou
Children’s section
Time Out
251 Tottenham Court Rd
London W1T 7AB
020 7813 6187
natashapolyviou@timeout.com
URL:
www.timeout.com/london

TimeOut has very strict requirements for the format of a listing. Different types of
event require listing in different sections of TimeOut. Please see two samples:
What: Public Readings
Title: Destination London: Writing Cities from Eastern Europe
When: Fri. Oct 23 between 6.30-8.30
Where: Lecture Theatre 1 (LT1)
Cruciform Building
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT
Price: Free of charge, pre-booking required (http://destinationlondon.eventbrite.com/)
What’s involved: An evening of readings and discussion exploring east European
perspectives on London and different approaches to writing about the city. With
authors Kapka Kassabova, Vesna Marić, Borivoj Radaković, Vitali Vitaliev, Andrea
Pisac and Iain Sinclair.
Website: http://www.ssees.ac.uk/destinationlondon.htm
What: Short Story Workshop
Title: Balkanising Bloomsbury
When: Sat Nov 7, 2009, 10.30-4.30
Where: SSEES
16 Taviton Street
London WC1H 0BW
Price: Registration fee of £10.00 (includes snack lunch and refreshments). To book a
place, send an email to Aneliya Kuzmanova (a.kuzmanova@ucl.ac.uk).
What’s involved: Join Foxy-T author Tony White for a short story workshop
exploring the use of experimental writing techniques such as cut-ups to create a short
story from scratch in one day, reflecting on relationships between the Balkans and
London. Participants will be required to bring a notebook or laptop, and a number of
easily obtainable items to participate in the workshop.
Website:http://www.ssees.ac.uk/destinationlondon.htm