Member Article

From Teesside to Texas: North East lecturer to address world-leading tech festival

Teesside University lecturer Kate Baucherel has been invited to address South by Southwest (SXSW), one of the world’s biggest technology conferences held in Austin, Texas.

Business development and strategic consultant Kate, who lectures in accounting and finance at Teesside University Business School, will play a leading role in a discussion on retaining volunteer talent in a community.

Her expertise in retaining volunteers comes after she co-founded community software company, Ambix, which was formed in 2012 with the help of Teesside University’s graduate enterprise programme.

Kate said: “Ambix was initially set up as a collaboration tool for large organisations and networks, but we quickly found it was attracting volunteer and community groups.

“This led me into researching what it was that motivated volunteers and the methods of communication between them and their organisations.

“My research led me to a doctoral thesis completed at Teesside University by Dr Jennifer Hagan and I’ve built on a lot of her work for my talk at SXSW.

“Many organisations treat volunteers differently to full-time staff, however very often these people are just as professional but their motivations are misunderstood.”

Two creative businesses from the region will also be on show at the festival, thanks to a Department for International Trade (DIT) Northern Powerhouse trade mission.

Primitive Management and Cobweb Information are among more than 40 artists, producers and businesses - hailing from the North East, Yorkshire and the North West - on the mission to the global event.

David Coppock, DIT regional director for the North East, said: “South by Southwest is the world’s premier event for creativity.

“Here in the North East the music, film, online information and interactive sectors are increasingly important contributors to our economic and this mission allows us to showcase the North East’s burgeoning talent to a global audience.”

Claire Southwick, of artist and producer management company Primitive Management, commented: “The opportunity to attend the world leading South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, accompanied by experienced and well connected people from Department for International Trade was too good to miss.

“Knowing there are some great business connections to be made, and that there is on hand support from UK and USA export specialists is invaluable.”

Marianne Whitfield, MD of specialist information provider Cobweb, added: “SXSW is a great opportunity for me to explore new ideas, learn about developments in some of our key target sectors and find potential international partners”.