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

Exchange aims to bring together colleagues from communications offices and research offices who we believe could benefit from working more closely with each other in their joint efforts to ensure their institution's research travels widely. An evolution of The Conversation's twice-yearly Media Advisory Group, it is an opportunity to hear from experts, discuss the issues, share skills and best practice, and meet colleagues from across the sector.

Exchange 2024 will take place on July 5, and in these days where it seems face-to-face contact is increasingly scarce, we're looking forward to seeing our colleagues from across the sector again.

Places are limited to around 120, and are free for those from The Conversation's member institutions. Please register your interest, and an invite will follow.

This year's event includes talks on:

Rebecca Roberts, PR consultant, Thread & Fable

Sophia Smith Galer, Journalist and TikToker

Avery Anapol, QuarterLife Commissioning Editor

Huw Edwards, former MP and policy training consultant

Rakhi Biswas Evans, Parliamentary Knowledge Exchange Unit

Andrew Bruce Smith

With Andrew Bruce Smith returning to discuss examples from member institutions.

Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow and scicomms advocate

University of Southampton

Andy Tattershall, research communications trainer

University of Sheffield

More topics and speakers to be confirmed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Exchange made its debut on a sunny day in July, with around 80 communications and research staff joining us at Coram, a few minutes walk from Euston and Russell Square stations in central London, for a day of discussions with guest speakers, panel discussions and networking. Read more about Exchange 2022 here.