Thursday, June 28, 2012

Cultural Entrepreneurship Conference 2012

(A little shameless publicity to follow)
In recent months I have been buried in the 'writing up' of my PhD. Apart from my teaching commitments I've been keeping a very low profile within the research world. This means for me, this year, I haven't submitted any papers for conferences! For example this is the first time in my 9 years in Academia that I won't be attending the ISBE conference (which I am a bit disappointed about, especially given they have a dedicated creative industries track).

However I have been invited, and have accepted, to give a keynote presentation at The Cultural Entrepreneurship Conference in December, of this year in Pori, Finland. I figured by then I ought to have the bulk, if not all, my writing complete.... My presentation title will be: Creative Disciplines Education; a Model for Teaching Entrepreneurship and the Paradox of Teaching ‘Creatives’ Entrepreneurship.

What is great is that finally the two main areas that I have been working in (with in my research) have converged. For those of you who don't know me: alongside my PhD work on 'Creative Entrepreneurship, Gender and Careers' I've also been working pretty hard in the field of 'Enterprise Education' (ironically this is the area I've published in too). Perhaps this was inevitable, afterall so much of my approach is dependent on my own role within the research, I guess I couldn't help but influence myself.  Anyway I aim to look at where these two fields converge in December.

Before I go I have an observation/PhD tip:
If I get stuck, if I go back to my data I always seem to find the answer. I am still very fond of my data I feel like it's gold or something of very high value and when I get lost or am off on some mad detour (which often feels the case) my data can really help to focus my mind and reassure me that I'm actually on the right track.