 newidiol. Okay, good morning, everyone, and Rise and Shine, day three of the Alt Conference. So thank you very much for getting here on time this morning considering the late end to the festivities that we were involved in last night. I hope you all already enjoyed the event. I will hand over to Laurie and Santinu to give us our welcome and then we have a keynote here with us today, which I'm sure you will all very much enjoy. So over to Santinu. Good morning all. I hope everyone was well today this morning. For those of you joining here at the Oculus in Warwick and for those joining online, I'm Santinu Bassent, one of the co-chairs. So I work at the London Metropolitan University. I'm the Head of Educational Development and Digital Education and this is... I'm Laurie Phipps. I'm a Professor at Keill University and I also work at JISC. I'm really, really pleased to see so many people here this morning, especially I can see some people in the crowd that were in the pond at the Radcliffe last night so I'm glad that they made it this morning. That's awesome. Can I say thank you? Can. This conference has been sort of a really steep learning curve for both Santinu and I and I think we said on day one when we actually started putting our proposal together and writing the themes, we didn't really have a clue about putting a conference on for 350, 400 and all the people online. We couldn't have done it without the alt team and the alt team I think are in the room. Some of you are. So can we just say thank you to the alt team who held my hand and Santinu's through this? It's really hard work and it's effortless for me and Santinu. So thank you guys for doing that and also Billy who came in and has welcomed us and listened to what we wanted to do and helped us to make that happen. The themes that we put on, we said leading in a time of complexity there was social justice, social inclusion. One of the things is climate change. I'm hoping that next year we won't be all sat here sweltering but maybe this is something we have to get used to. And what does educational technology look like when we've got 1.5 degrees warmer? So maybe that's something we could think about for next year. So thank you all for turning up for this morning Santinu. And also just a brief thank you to the committee as well, the wider committee of around 2025 staff who've been helping out from across the globe. They're helping out in person here with the radio and other events and also online with our discord channel, social media channel and also reviewing and looking at proposals that have been submitted. So a really big thank you to them as well for their time during the lead up to this conference. So as Laurie hinted, we have in person and online around 350 to 400 participants in total, our biggest audience since the pandemic from 12 countries including the UK around the globe watching the live streams and attending here in person. We also have a number of alt scholars. There are 22 a record number of scholars who have been awarded at this event. Are there any scholars in the room this morning? It's a big shout out because alt have funded those people and we're really grateful to alt to make it more inclusive. So thank you very much and thank you for coming. So I'm going to hand over to Fraser for some interactive questions so get your thinking hats on. Let's ask Fraser because he's done this every day. Thank you. Thank you Santinu, thanks Laurie. Yeah, good morning everyone. Welcome to what's the third and final day of this year's alt conference. I hope those of you that have been here in person have enjoyed last night's antics. I imagine there might be one or two sore heads in here today. But yeah, obviously really, really glad to be here and my role in this particular case is to really introduce the interactive element to the conference. So my name is Fraser and I'm a customer success manager in the education team at Vvox. So we are ultimately a student engagement and response platform. So hopefully those of you that have been here in person as well as those of you that have been joining online would have maybe seen elements of Vvox being used throughout the conference. Primarily for Q&A, so the ability to obviously send in your questions and comments and really sort of pose those thought provoking ideas and questions to the various speakers, as well as the polling elements that we have been running throughout the conference as well. So I'm going to keep it short and sweet today and we're going to jump straight into a couple of the icebreaker polls that we've got set up once again for the final day. So business as usual for those of you that are used to this. If it's your first time today, then simply you just want to follow the joining instructions currently on screen. So you have a few different options. You can either navigate to Vvox.app on your smartphone and type in the 90 code either side of the stage or on screen. Or you can scan the QR code that is on screen there as well. I'll just give everyone five or 10 seconds or so to do that. And then we'll kick things off with a couple of workouts again this morning. Thanks Ethan, I think let's go ahead and launch the first poll. So we have our work out here. So we have many first time delegates this year. Any advice on making connections on the final day? So I guess maybe tapping into the slightly more sort of veteran or experienced delegates that are here at the conference. Any advice or ideas to share on making those connections with fellow colleagues and community members? So we've got some things coming in here already. Start with your name. Just smile. Pickled onion. Not sure what the idea behind that one was. Lots of kind of mention of really just talking to people. Use Discord. That's a great shout out. So the community and I've done a fantastic job. Obviously once again with the Discord channel this year. So there's been lots of engagement through that. But please obviously continue that on the last day as well. So hangover cures that could be very relevant for today. So do share those ideas. But yeah we'll just let that work out Bill guys. And we will be sharing all of these after the conference as well. We've run a few of these over the past few days and had some really fantastic themes and ideas and comments shared within here. Looks like smile is definitely coming out on top. So of course just sort of that friendly nature and really just being able to talk to everyone. So I think yeah we can probably close that one off I would say Ethan. Thank you very much. And then we just have one final question as well. So we can jump to that now. So very simply watch your prediction for this coming year in edtech. So I think this could go in a number of ways. But yeah really just interested to see what we get coming through here. I think we already know what the main themes are going to be once again. AI of course up there. Carbon footprint. AI crazy. More AI. Yes it's a very very polarising subject at the moment isn't it? The world of AI. More learning. Please calm down AI. Wonderful. We'll just give it some time to again allow everyone who may be joining in online as well. Someone's mentioned Twitter in there as well which is obviously yeah that's been quite a polarising subject in and of itself. Recruitment issues. Digital wellbeing. Very important as well. Balance in hybrids. Definitely agree. Wonderful. Great themes and topics there guys. As I predicted. AI is coming out on top. In various forms and factors. But yeah I think we can close that off. Once again Ethan. Really appreciate that. And thanks everyone for getting involved. Just the final thing from me. So we do still have a interactive survey that is open in this same session. So on your app interface there is a third tab. Within the VVox meeting and that will allow you to go through and complete a sort of interactive quiz that you set up. It's all about Warwick and Alton and sort of various learning technology themes. You do have the chance to win a £10 voucher as well as a reusable coffee cup if you wish to go ahead and do that. But just finally to close before I hand back to the guys. I just really want to say a really big sort of thank you to the York community for having us once again. Obviously great to have Billy stepping into the fray. But we've sort of worked with the community for a number of years. And we always really appreciate attending these conferences every year. It's one of our sort of most looked forward to events. We really enjoyed talking to all of you over the past few days. And I just want to say I hope you have a fantastic last and final day here. Do please sort of take on those themes that we've seen there in terms of making those connections. And I hope everyone has a safe journey back to wherever you travel for them. And thank you very much and enjoy your last day. Thank you Fraser. So before we start with today's activities we would like to say a huge thank you to our sponsors. So Inspira, Echo 360, Caltura, Pebblepad and also Vvox. Without your engagement and your support today and the previous, the whole event would not be possible. And also a big thank you to our other exhibitors and partners who you can find here on the first floor. Do speak to them in the breakouts and during lunch etc. So they'll be around until four o'clock when the conference ends. Thank you. Okay and so we come to a point where we can share some really exciting information with you and some news in terms of our OER conference. So if you haven't been to OER then OER is our additional conference that we hold every year. And I'm going to reveal now where our conference will be taking place. So Munster Technology University will be held in Ireland in Cork on the 27th to the 28th of March. And there is a website which isn't listed here so I'll give this to you so you have a first look at that. That is OER 2024.co.uk. It's a nice easy web address for you to remember. OER 2024.co.uk. And on to the less exciting part of the presentation but vitally important is the housekeeping. So there's no fire alarms today. Our programme as I said earlier closes at four o'clock so do bear that in mind. So that's today. There are no tests if there is a fire alarm then it is going to be a real one. In terms of the end of day we will be concluding in the hall here. But we do need to ask that you start to make your way off site at four o'clock to allow the exhibitors time to pack down their stands. And obviously we don't need people around because there's the risk of health and safety etc. So please do when you're notified via the Tannoy announcement make your way to the luggage area to collect your luggage. And obviously a safe journey home. We still have the museum of alt, hashtag museum of alt for memories of the last 30 years. As well as various memories of the conference over the last 30 years as well. It takes place online through the discord and the social media channels and also in room OC107. So do take a look at that if you've got time today. We also have the alt C radio last day for that with the Thursday night show. The host Dominic Pates will be playing various songs, pre-recorded content and also some live DJing happening as well. So do check that out. It's happening here on the first floor. And it's being broadcast live via the Thursday night show dot com. So finally we have our final keynote presentation for the 2023 30th anniversary conference. And this is a very special guest today this morning. I came across Binda on what was then Twitter. I host a podcast show and he was one of my first guests in around May 2021. And we talked about collaborative practice in architecture, which is this area. And after that I thought we could possibly collaborate on something else. And when Laurie and I were thinking about keynote presentations, especially for the final day, I thought of Binda as somebody who could take part in that. And he's not only an architect and a course leader for the collaborative practice in architecture at the Sheffield School of Architecture. He's also a CBBC BAFTA award-winning presenter of de-engineers. For those of you who have kids, you may recognise him when he comes on stage in a moment. So he's very well accomplished in both architecture education and in media. And the association often doesn't have representation from people of colour on stage as keynotes. And often doesn't have co-chairs as myself in this area. So today you're going to see two people from Huddersfield originally. And I'm born in Bradford in West Yorkshire. It's going to see two people born and brought up in Yorkshire on stage here today. Today is also the Hindu festival of Janmarshmi, which is the birth of Lord Krishna, the eighth incarnation of Vishnu. And that symbolises a new beginning. It's Billy's first full day in charge. So it's a very auspicious day in the Hindu calendar. So without further ado, I'm going to hand over to Vinda Samra. A big round of applause, please. Thank you. Thank you so much for our lovely introduction and what a wonderful event. I feel very privileged to be here amongst so many people who are obviously very accomplished at what they do. I'm not going to say I feel like an outsider because I'm on the inside. I'm delivering a keynote at an international conference. So that's pretty amazing. So thank you so much. I've got some notes just in case I need them but hopefully I won't. I'll just get myself set up. And also welcome to everybody that's online. Please feel free to interact through all the multiple mediums. I'm sure that today is about a sense of how we connect and how we interact with each other. Can you see me okay? Can you hear me all right? Perhaps I can get away from the back. It's a very big lecture theatre. I had a wonder to the back earlier on. I was thinking that's quite far away at the front. So my friend there who's right at the back. Yes, yes, you. Yes. Yes. Hi. Hi. What's your name? Peter. Peter, right. I've got a friend at the back of the room. Brilliant. Thank you, Peter. Can you hear me and see me okay? Wonderful. Thank you, Peter. Thank you. Right. I'll put my bag down, get my water. Just get used to being here. Wonderful. Okay. So I'm Satwin Samra. I'm an architect. I teach at the University of Sheffield. I also do some work on television. And I do some practice work with a very good friend of mine, William Matthews. And I've got one of those water bottles where it's connected. I've just realized it's super technology that it doesn't come off. It's supposed to stay there. And now I've realized that I can relax. Okay. Lovely. Lovely. Right. So I'm going to talk for about 40 to 45 minutes. So for those of you that are thinking, how long is this going to go on for? I've been here for three days. You know, I'm ready to go home. Bear with me and we'll go on a little bit of a journey if that's okay. Peter, is that all right? Yeah. Peter's happy. Wonderful. I've got another friend, Martin, in the audience as well. Martin's giving me a wave as well. Okay. Martin, so if we can start our little timer, that would be wonderful. I have two clickers, which is wonderful. I know I'm at a technology conference because I've got two clickers, just in case one goes from. So first image really is about my technology journey. And thinking back to when I was about 12 years old, I wanted a computer and my father took me to Cury's. My father was a bus driver and he bought me an acorn electron, which cost £199. I think on top of that there were some charges for a cassette player and some insurance and all the other things they get you to buy when you embark upon your technology journey. And I've put this on Instagram recently and other people did some reminiscing as well, in particular the Commodore 64, ZX81 and the ZX Spectrum. My dad was a bus driver and at that time that was a very substantial sum of money for him to outlay, to allow me to embark upon my technology journey. So in 1988 I was fortunate enough to be accepted to the Sheffield University School of Architecture. That's me at the bottom. I've got some Aviator sunglasses, moustache, slightly dodgy haircut, but I thought I looked quite cool then but nobody told me that I didn't. And I was one of 33 students. I had the lowest grades in my cohort. I very nearly didn't get into the Sheffield University School of Architecture. Oops, it's jumped. And here I am in first year with my friend Raj. Raj went on to study medicine and I'm sure he's a high-profile consultant now, saving lives. And on the bottom right you can see a black and white television. This was purchased at the same time as the Aircon Electron. So this was my monitor for my Aircon Electron. But also it was my TV when I went to university and it sat on a chair and that was my connection to the outside world at that time. At the same time I was listening to some music, things like Soul to Soul, which was on a cassette. So a little bit about my background, a little bit about who I am, which gives you a sense of who I am as an individual and as a person. And I think we all need to remember and we should share and we should celebrate who we are and we should be proud of where we come from and our backgrounds. We shouldn't hide that. But it's only recently I've started to be a little bit more open about that and I'll touch upon that again a little bit later on. And just before I move on to the next slide I've got a couple of questions which might help me a little bit later on. Have we got anybody in the room that has or currently drives a Saab motor car? Anybody? No? Okay, alright, everybody's looking around to see who, right, okay. Any fans of Greggs? Anybody like a Gregg sausage roll or maybe a cheese and onion pasty? Alright, how many hands have gone up? Quite a few, quite a few. Okay, you don't have to hashtag that onto any online network. We're just sharing that amongst friends and with our friends online. If anybody wants to type into the chat bar, I'm a big fan of vegan sausage rolls. Please do so. So, first of all I'm going to talk about club to practice which is a course that we designed at the University of Sheffield and I'll talk a little bit about my work in television and then I'll finish off with a little bit about communication but also the idea of inclusion and diversity and perhaps we'll try to be optimistic about what we might do in the future. So, in 2016 we were quite concerned about architecture education in particular the fact that architecture education is quite long. It takes seven years to qualify as an architect. That's quite a long time. Some of you might think when you watch Grand Designs have they really trained for seven years? They don't know what they're doing. It doesn't work. It's too big. And why is it over budget? And then Kevin will come along and get very excited about the fact that the trailer has got stuck in an alleyway which seems to happen. And that's just before somebody announces that they're pregnant and they're still living in a caravan. So, back to club to practice. Martin, can I just do a quick time check please? How long? Oh, lovely, lovely. So I've been going for seven minutes. OK, lovely. Thank you so much. I had a moment then, you know, like when the pilot's on the plane and they do a little check with the co-pilot. I don't have a co-pilot but I have Martin and I have Peter at the back, which is wonderful. And our friends who've just joined. Good morning, welcome. Lovely to see you all. Don't worry about the fact that you're just a little bit late. I'm not a stand-up comic. I'm not going to highlight anything that you're wearing or carrying. You can relax. So essentially architecture education is quite long. It's quite arduous and we were worried that with the introduction of the new fee that students would get their year out and they would leave because they're carrying debt and they don't want to take on board more debt. So ultimately the profession becomes more exclusive and less diverse. So we wanted to build upon what we already offered. We wanted a genuine shared approach between students practice and academia for all. I hate this slide. I need to change it because I'm reading off a script and you're about to switch off. So I'll cut to the last one which is the last two which are really important for me. One is a model that allows you to earn as you learn which acknowledges that there are financial pressures of being an architecture student. I think there's financial pressures of being a student at any stage of your life. But also a unique proposition that would allow students to understand their own approach within contemporary practice. So essentially this is a practice based learning model using distance learning. Pretty simple, pretty straightforward. If only it was so easy to get this thing up and running. So at the time we did some research if you ever want to do something new you have to do some research. You have to prove that you have some understanding and awareness of what other people are doing. Especially in... Good morning. Welcome. Lovely to see you. As I said before, I won't point out what anybody's carrying. We just keep going with the flow. It's all fine. Right. So we did some research. Some of you might be aware who work in the academic sector that you always have to show proof. You can't just have a hunch. You can't just say I've got a feeling about something. You've got to prove that it might be relevant or... of merit. At the same time there was... As there always is a sense of... there needs to be a radical review of teaching. This was going on then in 2012. It's still going on. Everybody's always trying to say we need a radical review of something. So as I said before architecture education is seven years but actually many students take nine to nine and a half years to full qualification for working in practice but also they earn money while they're in practice. But nine and a half years is quite a long time and that's even worse for Kevin when he's saying that the architect hasn't done what they were supposed to do and then he says but you actually took on average nine and a half years to qualify. So this is a standard model of architecture education the so-called full time at university. This idea that you go to an institution where all of the time doing something called education you don't do anything else you don't have a life, you don't work you don't have any caring commitments you just do uni full time. This I have a bit of a problem with but I'll kind of expand upon that a little bit more later. So that's the existing model and we decided that the first year in practice students would work and we would have a number of new modules designed that would reflect upon the work that the student does within practice. Oops It wasn't that easy to make this thing happen because we were initiating change people don't like change, they like things just as they are. It's easy, we did it last year let's just do it again. So we had to seek a number of approvals and I was wonderfully supported by colleagues in the department and at faculty and at university level and we had to seek approvals at all those stages. If you're designing something new within an academic environment there's always something called learning outcomes and criteria and assessment criteria. These are kind of super fascinating but also quite dull but actually they became quite important pieces of scaffolding that allowed us to understand what we were trying to deliver but also we had the criteria that we were bound upon from the professional institute the Royal Institute of British Architects. So interestingly the RIBA has 11 general criteria and 7 graduate adjuff boots and then we also have the K-series and the S-series for learning outcomes and assessment criteria not to be confused with the model of a Saab car. However when you're trying to explain this to a broader public and trying to convince them that what you're doing is relevant and valuable you have to communicate that. So Alex Maxwell, who was a wonderful colleague that I was working with did these very very simple and beautiful diagrams that explained that all this was joined up and it was beautifully seamless and they believed us and now this is used as an example of exemplary communication when you are designing a new course. Just do a quick time check please Martin. Thank you so much. The other thing we looked at was hours. Apparently there's this kind of way of looking at the world where if you say something happens for eight hours that's what will happen that's what the student will do that's what will be delivered. We know that the world doesn't work like that it's fluid, it's flexible people sometimes do things quickly sometimes they do them slowly sometimes they need a little bit more time sometimes people get bored what on earth am I doing here what has this got to do with anything in my world hopefully not. Peter, are we still okay? Yes, Peter is still interested. Wonderful. I've got a little bit of reassurance there just as I was about to doubt my own knowledge and understanding and awareness of learning hours. So I think the biggest dilemma here was trying to convince people that you could work and you could still be learning so you could not be in a university building like this and you could still be learning and the beauty was the internet this wonderful tool and for us something as simple as Skype empowered us to allow the course to develop. At the same time we went and visited students who could potentially come and do this course and we went and spoke to them and said look do you think this is a good idea and they said yeah we think it's a good idea and the second image along the second student from the left is Chris Jones who embarked upon the course completed the course and now is sorry and has gone back to his practice and now he's mentoring other students that are going through the programme. So we've got this lovely loop now because we've been going for nine years. We're credible now whereas when we started we were not as credible. So this is what it looks like. Here's a student in practice they're working on a project. It could be a school maybe not a school given the current political and crisis that we're going through with RAC an aerated concrete. They're working on that four days a week the fifth days for academic learning and support the work that comes out of those modules feeds back in to the university but it also feeds back into the work that the student is doing within practice so it's like totally joined up. In terms of the delivery this is what it kind of looks like. This is a simple drawing I did at the time to try and convince people that this was of merit. The student could be working on their own at home or in the practice there might be two students working together we visit London once every six to seven weeks we all get together we interact in real time in the same way that we are now the practice has a mentor and a director that oversees their work we know that the practice can teach but we don't expect them to do so because they're busy kind of running a business busy trying to be an employer and there's interaction with myself and colleagues and we have a number of seminars we started with six practices that worked with us to develop the course we now have over 75 leading UK architectural practices as part of our network this is what the timetable looks like every Friday there's something different happening sometimes it's self directed sometimes we're in London sometimes it's distance learning and sometimes we have a number of return days where the student physically comes back to the university but we limited that because every time someone has to come back it costs time and money and time and money is very valuable it's very precious and I think often we take that for granted at the same time I was doing some writing excuse me I want to take a drink how are we doing for time are we okay 16 in that's super helpful thank you so much I did some writing for the architectural review I got interviewed by Adrian Dobson for an aptly named book 21 things you won't learn in architecture school this was essentially about building some level of credibility that the person or the team developing this programme actually knew what they were talking about because if you don't have credibility I'm not sure about that at the same time we had other institutions developing their course one in particular in London so every time I used to talk about our course they would say is it a bit like that course I don't go at first I used to get wound up and then I just used to say it's really good that there's choice and they had these lovely photographs taken where they look very serious and very kind of like in control and they're kind of posing and posturing and I think one person is smiling whereas the other people are looking really serious so what we did was we made a little film managed to get some money together from someone in the corporate affairs department of the university who was wonderful gave us a thousand pounds and we made a film we made the film at the same time as we were designing the course trying to recruit so everything was simultaneous and yeah the film was super helpful and super empowering and it allowed us to sort of share the journey and share the story oops at the same time I was a role model for the RIBA this is something I truly believed in about making architecture more inclusive it wasn't just something I was doing as a day job but obviously the day job is important at the time the RIBA tweeted retweeted something that I'd said we risk a future where an architectural profession will only be for those that can afford it and that got 26 retweets which I think is pretty good the first students that embarked upon this course were guinea pigs and I'm still very very grateful for them embarking upon the programme but we called them pioneers because they're the ones that took a chance that took a risk we also did some work with a wonderful agency called Peter and Paul who did a little graphic for us to make us look like we were serious so you do whatever you can to try and build credibility this is what it looks like two torrens in London design review in London we're Skyping colleagues from London back to Sheffield and then there's a conventional studio and we're saying our model of working is as relevant as the conventional model and oops I skipped that one it doesn't matter where you are in the world if you've got an internet connection the student can be anywhere they want to be so we broke that kind of physical time motion distance conundrum and I used to have hair then as well just looking at those slides now and here we are doing a day in London we're at Richard Rogers partnership we're sharing it's collaborative everybody plays a role I'm not there as a tutor I'm there more as a facilitator and as a friend and you'll notice everybody's smiling which is great if people are smiling while they're doing what they're doing I sense that they're probably enjoying what they're doing and then we went into COVID the course was COVID proof before COVID existed because we just smoothly segued into what we were already doing it just carried on interestingly enough other people thought hang on a minute this sounds quite good, we'll have a little bit of that and I was delighted to see that the University of Nottingham launched a course but they decided to call there's MRC architecture with club to practice and they put the word research on the end so I'll take that, I'm very pleased to see that maybe we're doing something right the biggest dilemma that we face when we're delivering courses that aren't physically based in the University is what is an appropriate fee that should be charged for students who are not physically based in the University the fee that we should charge is a full fee for those students that are on a course that doesn't have people who are physically based in the University this is a big conundrum it's a dilemma we need to keep talking about it and after we designed the course and developed it I discovered a book called The Reflective Practitioner by Sean which kind of spoke about the things that we were doing this book was released in 1984 at the same time I bought my acorn electron so there's a lovely kind of journey there of my technology journey and my learning journey as a so-called professional academic educator Sean is wonderful and speaks about this idea of doing and thinking, you look back, you look forward you learn by doing, you don't learn by just listening we've now got over 75 leading practises on board we've actively go and visit these people oops sorry it's got a glitching we actively go and visit all the people we build networks, we build connections, we take photographs we share them on social media so people go there must be something interesting happening there they look really happy and they're doing stuff, oh there they are again and we've continued doing that I was thinking about this talk together that actually that was a very purposeful thing that we did to actively share and celebrate those moments because it builds collateral and it builds awareness that people know what you're doing ok thank you so much, thank you and here's what some of the students have said everybody loves feedback don't they it's the goldest of the academic world if we have good feedback people are happy and then they can say you've done a good job if you don't have good feedback it's all a bit sad sad face, we want to avoid that sad face emoji so a fantastic unique opportunity to unpick everyday practice in a way that no other architectural school does amazing discussion primarily led by and between students best experience in my architecture education, wonderful, lovely to hear that right ok I think I'm running about 30 seconds behind now is that right I've got plenty of time but I like to have a time check and it means I can have a chat with you and I can just relax and keep going everybody ok with this so far we're about half way through I've got some thumbs up, you can type into the chat bar or whatever you're typing into Google, Twitter, Bumble LinkedIn am I friend of the bat Peter you're still there Peter's still there, Peter's still smiling wonderful ok wonderful so the next area I'd like to talk a little bit about is learning from TV and I'll share a little bit about my experiences of working on a show and what I've learnt from that so in 2016 we were approached by the BBC I got an email from Jen Morrison saying would you be interested in working on the show called The Dengineers the shows had one series and we're looking for new designers I had never worked in television before and I was a little bit scared and a bit like why on earth have they asked me so I did what I normally do in these situations I phoned somebody else to get some reassurance and see if someone else would like to join in this experience with me I phoned my friend Tony Broomhead I said look there's a potential of this show are you interested he said yes they came over and met Tony myself we just sat at a table drawing and chatting about design how big is this door perhaps we put a window there maybe this could have a pitch roof but we had no idea what about this they left phoned us the next day we'd love you to do the show so we were then working on The Dengineers this is our first den this is an eco den which was using recycled materials for Brittany in the north west we decided to use some milk crates to make one side of the building it had some plants in it it had two doors so you could see through the den so we were sort of jettisons into this world without any training so Tony on the left myself and then you can see this lovely invisible line between the expert architects and the celebrity presenters Mark Wright who had never met before and Lauren Laefield we obviously wore colourful clothes because we thought well it's children's TV and maybe we need to be a little bit more and that they looked quite cool so that was the first thing so we were experts they were presenters we were brought on as architects and we were allowed to work as architects and that was wonderful because our expertise was given value and we were allowed to do what we were trained to do which was wonderful and so here's some sketches just going to talk about the process a little bit which is no dissimilar to a process of if I was designing your house or your university we came up with some ideas freehand sketches just trying to explore what the space might be like this is a Turkish tea den then we do some drawings that are a little bit more precise where we're thinking about materials colour texture and this was the farm then for a den engineer who wanted to look after his hens at home but also sell the eggs so we designed a little chicken barrow and we've also got a chicken weather vein little did I think in my seven years of architectural training that I would have the opportunity to design a chicken barrow and a chicken weather vein so the dens are then constructed off site it's kind of a process of off site manufacture we visit we visit the workshop and we're always very surprised that everything fits and it kind of all fits together then we are on location for five days where we build the den with the den engineers the den engineers is a kind of group of people we're all den engineers and the flat pack kind of comes together and that process is filmed the den engineer or the child is also involved so not in terms of just the building but in terms of explaining the process of design and construction and engineering we also do something called an up cycle where we take other materials and we use those materials to make something new so this is the cricket den for rodery and we made a cricket storage box using cricket pads and cricket balls that's quite a difficult thing to say and so there's a kind of process there's a story there's some people involved oh sorry this clicker is there we go the other thing they introduced recently was the kind of family challenge so at this moment we've gone from kind of being an expert who can design only having to be a kind of presenter okay so you can't just stand there and talk about shadow gaps and liminal space which some architects often do and if they do you shouldn't work with them but we talk about we're kind of engaging we're interacting in a live environment and that's been recorded and sometimes we have to do a number of takes so this is why when I speak in this kind of audience I've become quite relaxed by saying or I'll say Martin is that okay or I'll say Peter how we're doing we're okay because that helps me to relax because if I'm relaxed I can communicate better if I communicate better you are more relaxed and you're more likely to engage with the things that I'm trying to explain or describe or share with you so that was a family challenge and then the den is completed and what I would say is that the level of professionalism from the team the level of professionalism from the crew is exceptional and I've been very lucky to work with some wonderful people and we take things that are quite complicated these are two sisters one of the sisters had cerebral palsy she was in a wheelchair so we had to ensure that the den was totally inclusive we wanted to ensure that the journey or the experience for both children was exactly the same so we designed these very simple ramps and we managed to arrive into the den and move through the den this was the hotel bug den so if any of you are an eye player and you want to watch this it's called the hotel bug den and then at the end it's finished everybody cheers and everybody goes this den is done and they cheer and scream and we clap and there's a big camera on a massive boom that moves up and down and we do that perhaps six or seven times because sometimes we clap or someone starts cheering too quickly or too soon so there's the journey so I just want to talk a little bit now about behind the scenes or some of the processes as I've already mentioned there's a team a big team of people and everybody has a role we have producers assistant producers, researchers, runners camera people sound everybody kind of works together and there's constant communication there's a constant kind of level of dialogue and support you're there for five days, you have no choice you have to get the den finished and sometimes we design the den in such a way that it's tolerant of the filming process so this den which is the international celebration den has a window and the window wasn't just to bring light in but the window allowed for some camera shots to take place while we were designing and building during or through kind of a COVID situation so we became very good at standing at two metres away from each other and if you watch any of those shows like Denjaneers or Bake Off or anything else you'll notice that people are kind of at two metres away now that doesn't seem like that long ago but it sounds quite weird now talking about it doesn't it the fact that we're in this space and we can sit next to each other and have a chat we're not worried about that it's jeopardy most television has jeopardy sometimes it's real, sometimes it's constructed jeopardy so we would always talk about the weather because if it rains it's going to be quite problematic so I've done a number of shots to camera where I talk about the weather and I say it's going to rain and I'm really worried about it and I really hope that it stops raining and we can get this den done sorry I slipped back into Denjaneers mode there the other thing is sometimes you have to do things that you really didn't want to do I'm not a big fan of chickens no offence to chickens but we were asked to catch some chickens live on camera so I basically just spent my time just kind of moving around like this pretending to and fortunately Tony was much more adept at picking up the chickens so there's something about working with the moment or engaging with that moment which means that you perhaps relax and become more human rather than being a professional oops speaking of being professional this was the TV this was the TV presenter Den and we did a little shop piece to camera where we did a pretend TV game show and I had to wear this sparkly jacket and I quite enjoyed it it was fun but this never got used this got cut which is sad but that's okay I can still tell the story and they gave me the cut so I've still got that in my wardrobe the other thing that happened was the show has a really lovely aspect of teaching and learning and they take certain clips and they put them on their channel and this is Tony of myself with Lauren describing how ventilation works quite a complicated process we talk a lot about different processes like ventilation friction cantilevers and we explain them using simple language and we use props and for me that's been super empowering because that's come back into my teaching work and my practice work how does it make you feel say what you see don't use big words because people don't understand them so here we're explaining ventilation and we used we used a lemon the lemon was the sun and the lemon moved around it rose in the east moved around the south and set in the west which was a really lovely thing to do and after it's been sold all over the world and I feel very fortunate to have been part of a really lovely show working with wonderful people and for me it's been super empowering because it's allowed me to understand how to better communicate but also to enjoy the process of sharing whatever it is that you're interested in and just a couple of little things here I'm just going to do a time check and I'm going to have a glass of water if that's okay how are we doing 32 in okay so as agreed I was going to wrap at 40 but I might go to 45 if that's okay with everybody is that alright everybody okay with that thumbs up smiling emojis, hashtag what a great key note yes okay alright lovely so Andy Warhol speaks about 15 minutes of fame and I was this Greg's isn't up because of its minimalist facade by the way okay I was coming out of a Greg's I had a sausage roll and I was about to catch a train and someone rushed up behind me sat sat sat how are you doing sat I was slightly startled and he said you're off the engineers and I went yes I am well I had the sausage roll and he said oh I'm such a big fan of the show me and my son have watched all the episodes we think you're wonderful can we have a self air so I was slightly shocked because I had a sausage roll in my hand but that was such a lovely thing to happen and it was slightly unexpected so every now and again people will say we've watched the show or we really enjoyed it or kids will say we love the show and that's a wonderful thing to kind of have as feedback as feedback and I don't think there's many architects that can say they've designed a sausage dog den and here's Tony and Meryl and Joe and myself and yeah so that's a little bit about learning from TV so the next thing I'm going to talk about is communication this is something I'm super passionate about and I'm always thinking about it but how do we best engage with an audience whether it's in real time online or whether it's through television radio, Skype Google chat whatever is your preferred platform oops so as I've already mentioned I can speak for my own profession and I'm sure in your world our world there are certain words that we use because we use them because we want to be seen to be knowledgeable or to be seen to be experts so sometimes the architects will talk about liminal space and shadow gaps this is something I kind of tend to avoid I only talk about them when I'm making this point so I tend to focus on say what it feels like say what you see we're in this lovely space it's quite big, it's probably a bit too steep I could be super intimidated by this space but I'm not because I have my friend at the back who's just going to wave to me so all the other slides are from the internet these are things that people have published so they're in the world and I've just happened to have stumbled across them if there's anybody here from the Manchester School of Architecture I'd love to know what the doubling and disappearance of the body in architecture means because I don't know here's a tweet from Piers Taylor invisible studio and he said some very big words here work in progress in collaboration with the sensory ethnography laboratory and then there's a number of other words and then someone's someone has made a comment on this and I'm not sure if the first tweet was ingest but I think the second tweet was quite serious this is one of my bug bears and I've already accepted that I did this earlier on but if you want to engage with an audience connect with your audience ok because that will then allow you to have some level of dialogue and if you just put loads of words on the screen and read them out then people are more likely to switch off I know that I have to work really hard to keep you engaged and some of you might not be as engaged for various reasons that's ok but I'm trying my best to do whatever I can to interact with you as an audience in real time so that's one to remember again this is from the internet ok I'm also fascinated about what people say and what you see behind them ok so this is a professor speaking about a certain university and they're saying you're the people who give this university its vibrance and vitality and in the background it looks like it's raining and there's a kind of I don't know if that's a dual carriageway or a concrete kind of forecourt and behind that I'm not sure what the building is so the next part I want to talk about is the idea of inclusion and diversity and my experience but also perhaps the experience of others who are working in areas where they feel like they perhaps belong or they don't belong I've gone from being an outsider to sometimes feeling like an outsider to perhaps being an insider and sometimes I feel all three simultaneously in all the work that I do oops so speaking from the world of architecture there might be some reasons why I tend to shift between these different modes of thinking or feeling this is a talk by the architects that have been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize the Stirling Prize is one of the biggest prizes in UK architecture and what's interesting is that just across the road here there's a red building that has been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize this year 2023 so if you want to see some award-winning architecture there's a building just across the road the person that I work with William Matthews he was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize two years ago for a beautiful bridge that he designed in Tim Tangel but what's interesting about this slide is the body language let's just look at the body language the person on the left decided to fold their legs and cross their arms so the person next to them decided to do exactly the same and they all look very serious architects can be really serious because it took them seven years to qualify and they get really upset when they watch Grand Designs because they feel misunderstood but part of that's due to the fact that they've forgotten how to connect with their audience perhaps here are the winners of the STA awards structural timber awards in 2018 I've got a funny feeling that I'm never going to win one of these awards so the Black Lives Matter scenario was very tense and very charged and super political but what it did was it made people think about these super important issues but for me it gave me a kind of opening to express or speak about some of my experiences which beforehand I didn't feel that I could speak about so on the right are three asian architects okay Kevin Bob and myself okay Kevin went to an event and introduced himself and this person he was talking to said you're not Kevin you're Satwinder and he said no no no I'm Kevin and this person was trying to convince Kevin that Kevin was me that's when I was going through wearing a black looking serious face I've kind of moved on from there so there's been much more written about this about kind of exclusion in the profession or how people feel included or not I've commented for pieces in the architects journal at work related events I've been mistaken for a taxi driver or waiter this is purely based on my skin colour the fact that I'm an established professional or I hope I am does not make a difference if we are not seen or heard do we exist so I've been involved with the Stephen Lawrence trust some of you may be aware of Stephen Lawrence was a wonderful teenager who was sadly killed in a racist attack in 1993 and a trust was set up in his memory they have events and I was asked to speak at this event and I said I walk in the room and sometimes I'm the only person who looks like me what we have to do is continue being present and know that we do belong and deserve to have a seat in the room so ok final part and how we're doing for time I think I've got about 3 minutes of the 40 minutes left does that sound about right? ok everybody ok this is when the pilot says I hope you've had a lovely flight me and the co-pilot have really enjoyed et cetera et cetera relax last 10 minutes the wheels come down and everybody claps do people still do that? do you still clap when you land? I do, I'm not from the only person that claps because I'm so relieved so just a few points of reflection in terms of where I'm at and some of the things that I think we all need to be perhaps thinking about and using Bake Off everybody's looking for the golden bullet or a golden solution there isn't one but there are different ways of thinking about what we do obviously there is a challenge in terms of I googled this the other day and it's interesting what comes up is a university degree worth it? is a university degree still worth it? is a university degree still worth the cost and the funniest one for me is a university degree necessary for success essay so there's someone okay so not only do we think about these things there's someone going to help us write about those if we pay them £49 transfer using PayPal or Mastercard blockbuster video and Saab cars were very good companies and they were very successful they no longer exist we need to be mindful about what we do and how we do it and will we still be relevant in the future oops the other thing is that all universities are trying to do great work all trying to do great teaching great research, great innovation wonderful student experience etc etc but ultimately there are similarities in terms of what's done what I find fascinating as a communicator and so I'm working in the field is how that then is communicated to a broader public and for some reason everybody loves the circular strategic diagrammatic drawing I'm not going to say which university is which okay but top left is the simplest one okay and I'm really pleased to see that this university is now using simpler words in its communication bottom right have decided you know what we don't need one circle we're going to have four because what we do is much more complicated and complex so we need to be mindful about what we do and how we get the messages out to other people that might work with us on the left are some of the words that I think about when I'm in the university and on the right are some of the words that I think about when I'm engaging with industry and practice I think it's important that we don't create silos that we should not see this as a seesaw but always think of the idea of the bridge how do we connect beyond I know that there's many people in this room that are constantly doing that through the wonderful work that you do through my on teaching and with colleagues we always do kind of group conversations group discussions we take on board a number of different roles and someone will be the person sharing their work the researcher someone will be the reviewer who starts the feedback someone's the time keeper who helps to maintain time and I'm there to kind of help as perhaps as a peer now interestingly for me we just did this we didn't think about it we didn't analyse it and then one of the students wrote about it and apparently someone has done some research in 2013 which speaks about what we were actually doing so for me that was like a rubber stamp that said it's okay you're not an imposter you are doing something of value and of merit so I think the way that we teach however that might be we should keep doing it and we should keep celebrating it cos it's super important and something I was thinking about preparing this talk was the idea of the user experience and for me I think that needs to work at the level for the student but also the people like ourselves who work within universities and I think that should be as productive and inclusive as possible at all those stages so if it's for a student the process of admissions how do you find out how are you received or welcomed the moment of arrival when you arrive physically or digitally into a space how does communication occurred do you feel part of that or is it a bit like trying to get through to a pizza company when your pizza's late and no one calls you back what is the level of support do you feel supported can you support others what is feedback when does someone tell you what you're doing is kind of okay okay I asked you for feedback halfway in cos I was a little bit worried that this wasn't going very well and you kind of smiled and gave me some thumbs up I received live feedback that helps me to do what I'm trying to do and finally the idea of a value the value of what we do and how much it might cost whether you're a student or an educator but also are we valued ourselves do we value ourselves and are we valued by our institutions if that happens we go wow I had a great day at work today and everybody's happy and they come back the next day and they hopefully go through a similar process so for me user experience is super super important and if we think about what we do in those very simple terms about those moments when we interact with each other and as an organisation it just makes things a lot smoother and it often doesn't need a big strategy it often doesn't need a task and finish group to do that you just do it, you don't wait for permission the other thing is this idea of the networking or the skills or the attributes that we should be encouraging both in ourselves and with the people that we work with especially the next generation we might not have a module on networking and mindful listening but actually that needs to be at the core of many things that we do I noticed earlier on one of the questions from Fraser Fraser, one of the questions from Fraser was how do we network how do you sort of start that first moment of introduction I always give someone a compliment and say I love your shoes, where do you get those from you're off, you're running then, you're going it's like thanks so much, I'm glad you like my shoes I wasn't sure whether I should wear these today people feel like they get a feeling people might forget what you said but they won't forget how they felt when they spoke to you or with you finally this idea of that we can exist within our kind of own worlds and we talk to each other and we say everything's fine and we say yeah that's fine but I personally think that kind of being excellent in what you do is kind of important having an outward facing ethos connecting beyond whatever your world is but also being flexible in the way that you might work or the way that you might interact with others be of benefit and these words are very similar to some words that I saw in my own university and I thought they're good words, I'm going to work with those and use them but I also did a little drawing of it as well because I quite like drawing and it's kind of it's a nice way of passing the time so thank you so much, I've really enjoyed that and I hope it was insightful and you got something out of it please reach out, keep in touch usual channels, Instagram, Twitter I have a website as well thank you again, thank you thank you thank you so much, Sutwinda for that wonderfully engaging keynote spanning your personal journey as an educator as an architect and as a broadcaster so we're going to take questions in a moment I'm just going to hand over to Billy briefly if that's okay your Santa news sentiment there too thank you so so much for coming to speak today we haven't got time for questions so we're going to move on to the next part of the sessions so there is time for questions okay great, okay there is time for questions good good good, okay so using Vvox which you've been doing if you do want to post anything then please do so and do you want to happy to facilitate so I'm just going to take a couple of questions maybe with you so we'll see what's there so diversity plays a very important part but what about gender there seem to be a minimal number of women in your slides how is gender balancing architecture okay right thank you for that question that's a great question historically there were obviously less women in architecture but more recently there's been a shift and our school of architecture is definitely more balance and mix I will definitely go back and do a sense check of my slides because I'd like to think that there are some women in the slides but I'm going to go back and sense check those so apologies for that I hope that how is the gender balance at the moment the gender balance architecture is much better the course that I run collaborative practice we've just recruited 22 students and 14 sorry 14 of those are women and in our undergraduate course I think the balance is sort of 60-40 and also at the Sheffield School of Architecture we have a very good balance between sort of gender and diversity I'd probably say that generally in terms of POC of people of colour there's still a long way to go on that front I hope that answers that question what's interesting for me is that I can't have an interaction with the person that asks the question so I find this quite anonymous but that's okay because that's the whole point of this isn't it it's like right next I'll take one for the one that with the five likes at the top there do you notice your communication style and storytelling approach have an impact on your students you work with and how does it shape them professionally okay that's a lovely question thank you so much so I've deliberately integrated the idea of storytelling and communicating in all my work with all of my students so we talk a lot about how do you introduce yourself and how do you start a presentation if you're speaking about a building what is it where is it how does it make you feel if you remember those three things you can explain any building you can explain any project we also talk quite a lot about tone of voice about speed often when people are nervous they talk really quickly and they lose their train of thought and they're lost and you're lost and everybody's lost sometimes people will turn when they're talking sometimes and I've got just moved that sometimes people have things in the way so we talk a lot about preparation about how you prepare to present so that you are not just prepared but you are relaxed enough to best convey whatever is you want to talk about so how does it shape them professionally you'd have to ask them but from what I'm aware of when I see former students working in practice or presenting projects I'd like to hope that they've taken something from that but what it does is when they have that moment at the end when they present their project I'd like to think that they can they stay calm they engage with their audience they know how to take questions but also it means that the audience has received their project in the best possible light so for me it's absolutely fundamental as a teacher to engage and bring that learning from television and communication into the work it's embedded in everything that I do why are you not wearing your sparkly jacket it suits you thank you so much I've got a silver one as well so if you ask me back I promise to wear the sparkly jacket okay there's another one about your communication style did you build that up through experience alone or were there some key people that influenced your style or skill? that's a really good question so some of it's through experience of having worked in television but before that I've been lecturing I do a course called management practice and law that is a highly interactive course where I move around a lot I walk right to the back and I walk to the front we'll talk about lots of different topics because it's potentially a quite adult subject and my job is to make it engaging make it memorable so that people can take on board the information and so that's something that's been home there have people who've influenced my style and skill working with the professional TV presenters and actors what I've learnt is one is that when you arrive somewhere you should make friends okay I know Fraser I know Linda and I know Penny and I know Martin and I know Peter so when I turn up somewhere I make friends because I know if the plane starts to go down I might need some help and I feel more relaxed because I've got friends in the audience so this is what I teach my students when you turn up somewhere be polite ask people how they are take some ownership of that by watching the professionals when the professional presenters turn up they make everybody feel special they're polite and they're engaging and the reason they do that I believe is number one it helps them to relax but also it means later on when there's something not quite working out people will help you if you turn up and you're kind of not very polite or you ignore people or you think you're better than then guess what's going to happen later on when the plane starts to bump a bit it's your party you saw that yourself so I think that's part of also being a good colleague I always say be a good colleague and often people turn up to do their thing so if you're in doubt turn up and be a good colleague there's a question on apprenticeships there about how could this model be used for apprenticeships that's a great question thank you so our model is similar to the apprenticeships but it is not an apprenticeship model however the way that our students learn while they're in practice I think there's quite a lot of synergy or quite a lot of crossover so I'm a big fan of any models that allow for a different route that's inclusive and acknowledges that people might not have very much money or they might have other needs I'm a big fan of any of those kind of areas or topics is the Gregg sausage roll still worth it? essay yes I'm just waiting for my provider to deliver that I'm just waiting for a text update on that there's a question on equality inclusion and diversity how can non-famous people get their voices heard I guess that's it okay alright so I'm not sure if this person is suggesting I'm famous but I might have misread that so let me read it again for inclusion diversity how can okay alright so I think the most important thing is to keep turning up the most important thing is to celebrate and share who you are the most important thing is to say this is me, this is my background this is what I'm about and you shouldn't be apologetic about that I used to be quite apprehensive about saying that I that my dad was a bus driver or I come from Huddersfield or I speak like this I've got an accent but I think the most important thing is to turn up, be a good colleague but make a good network interact with people because often people want to interact back and if you're nice to people they'll be nice back the other thing for me is I'm doing a talk next week in London which is about working class culture and I often say I am working class and I've been told by people that I'm not working class and I'm like hang on a minute it's in my gift to decide if I'm working class or not because that might make them feel a little bit uncomfortable but it's not making people feel uncomfortable it's just saying that's a fact that's a given so I think that same voice has heard rather than geared is that a typo or is that a typo lovely, lovely, thank you no problem and that's the beauty of social media you can interact and you can build a presence that's what we did with the course because we needed to have some level of credibility wow is lecturing a performance do we need to provide training for academics from James Clay? James, where's James? hi, thank you James, what a great question do we need to provide training for academics? it depends if the academic feels like there would need some help that would be my first question because if the door is open then I would suggest yes but some people might not feel like they need some support or training because they are experts in their field they have a PhD they've studied so hard but they don't need any training I would probably suggest that there are tactics that we can adopt about how you engage how you get information across how you read your audience how you know when to back off a bit so, yeah there's a question about your thoughts from the next generation of students and what you are you hopeful about that? what are your thoughts about the next generation of students are you hopeful that is a really good question I think I am very hopeful because ultimately if I think about my journey I shouldn't really be standing here okay I often think that my dad was a bus driver mum sewed clothes in a factory migrants from the Punjab and we didn't have a lot of money but I was given a number of opportunities which I took so I think moving forward it's still important that those opportunities are offered but not just offered but we don't just need access to the pathway we need support along the pathway as well and students if they have the support as they go along they're more likely to succeed the other thing is that it's absolutely fundamental that there are other routes to professional qualification whatever the field is but also there needs to be an acknowledgement about how much it costs and where does that money come from and how are we doing for time? couple of minutes maybe there's a lot of questions lots of praise, engagement thank you, thank you from your TV show and also your teaching practice as well so how many of your students have enrolled in the degree or masters program because they watched the BBC the engineers program I don't know how many people because they've never admitted it but what I do know is that Tony teaches interior design at Sheffield Hallam University and he has had a number of students who watched the show and then they came for the open day and they saw Tony and they thought this is the course for me so I think it has had some impact all right, lovely thank you and then just before I leave could someone at the back maybe Peter have you got a camera could you take a photo of me just standing here and I'll just pretend I'm talking and then I've captured that moment is that okay? and we can just get a slide up of one of the slides, is that possible? this is what we do, we choreograph capture the moment, hold it let's go back, let's go back let's get a nice one let's see which one should we have we'd have an early one of the course or maybe the first slide sorry I'm being a pain now thank you Penny, really appreciate that okay so we're going back now we're going back, there we go just rewind and I'm just standing here looking like I'm just about to start can you get a few shots, is that okay? Peter, yeah, we'll connect after and share those, right okay, thank you so much, thank you we're quite speechless right now that was absolutely amazing so thank you so so much so it's now time for a break which I'm sure you'll all be relieved to hear so we will regime activities and Jane will announce the next activity so thank you very very much and thanks to you Sir Winda we're so happy to have had you today thank you thanks a lot, take care