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Bennett

Laura Isobel Hearn

Bennett

Ad-Hoc Expert

Generic Skills

B.1. Understanding of integrated and sustainable urban development: 
Digital tech is the fastest growing sector, creating high value jobs, attracting young wealth creators to urban centres, positively impacting on a city’s brand. Developing an ecosystem to support entrepreneurs is essential for integrated sustainable urban development. I have designed & run courses in entrepreneurship: Startup MBA, Founder Centric [http://bit.ly/2rQX2l3]; Startup Tribe, Escape the City [http://bit.ly/2r0ygxI]; Founders’ Network, Tech North [http://bit.ly/2s0RlmD]. As a freelancer, I lead on projects in digital tech, community engagement, & ecosystem development with clients in public & private sector. I am Executive Director of MakerHub [http://bit.ly/2raF5M4], supporting scaleup digital entrepreneurs in Sheffield City Region. The mission of MakerHub is to create conditions for a vibrant & supportive entrepreneur-led ecosystem to foster economic growth & create jobs. I hold a MSc degree in Globalisation & Latin American Development and understand how macro-economic & political structures can impact a country’s economic development. Two research areas were the impact of NGOs in influencing intl. dev. policy, and how to achieve sustainable urban development locally within a global neoliberal agenda. I worked in the nonprofit sector for 6 yrs, with 4 yrs in Peru, where I managed the strategy & operations for 2 nonprofit orgs. My experience designing & running programmes to support economic development is grounded in principles of sustainability & integration.
B.2. Understanding of exchange and learning processes at transnational level: 
I have run a presentation & a workshop on ecosystem development for URBACT TechTown, in Limerick & Tallinn. In Aug 2016, I mentored South Korean MBA students taking part in a Social Impact Accelerator at the University of Sheffield [http://bit.ly/2r0Lpqt]. I led on 1-to-1 mentoring with students whose first language was not English, requiring patient & creative communication skills. In Sept 2016, I coached startup founders in Gaza [http://bit.ly/2rQPQp2]. This involved 1-to-many mentoring sessions with founding teams in the early stages of developing their digital tech startups. I also led a Customer Development workshop [http://bit.ly/2sYUqRA] for 100+ Gazan entrepreneurs, and facilitated a discussion for 20 female Gazan entrepreneurs. I worked for 6 years in the intl. dev. sector requiring me to work at a transnational level & operate across different cultures & languages. At the Fairtrade Foundation (2008-2010), I led a UK Producer Tour with a farmer from Burkina Faso. Facilitating a useful & illuminating bilateral dialogue, no matter who the audience was, was integral to my role. As Director for Awamaki (2012-2014), I led an international team of Peruvians & Americans. The staff was diverse in language, nationality, & education level so I created an environment that would engender learning & knowledge exchange. We worked with indigenous women who only spoke Quechua. We had to be creative in facilitating training & capacity-building sessions to ensure full comprehension.
B.3. Proficiency in English: 
I am fluent in English (mother tongue).

Expertise for the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities:

Summary Expertise for the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities: 
I have knowledge & experience of tools applied to learning processes in transnational contexts. At Awamaki, I led a team of different nationalities. I facilitated knowledge exchange & co-design between Americans, Spanish-speaking, and Quechua-speaking Peruvians. I developed a workshop about entrepreneurship ecosystems & delivered it in transnational settings. Volunteering for Gaza Sky Geeks, I delivered a Customer Development workshop for 100+ Gazan entrepreneurs, facilitated a group discussion with female founders, and provided 1-to-many mentorship. I have leadership experience & a high level of emotional intelligence. At Awamaki, I ensured that the language of the office was Spanish, so that Peruvian staff did not feel excluded. I was sensitive to cultural differences & created a safe environment for collaboration. I led on the formation of an NGO network, bringing together 20+ NGOs, to collaborate & share learnings. I am able to present & capture knowledge in an engaging way. I taught the principle concepts of Customer Development through storytelling techniques, basing the learning in a local context. I delivered a workshop for URBACT TechTown on ecosystem development for European public policy officials, and wrote up the experience as a blog post. In Gaza, I wrote regular blog posts showcasing the startups, demonstrating that the skills required to start a business are universal. I authored a report on the Creative Digital sector in Sheffield, providing recommendations.

Thematic expertise:

Theme / Policy: 
Local Economic Development
Theme / Policy: 
Entrepreneurship and competitive SMEs
Summary Thematic expertise: 
Sub-theme: entrepreneurship skills & learning for digital tech startups and scaleups. I have designed & delivered educational & skills-based programmes and workshops to support digital tech startups and scaleups. Founders’ Network (Tech North) was a 6-month peer-to-peer learning & support programme, with world-class educators & experts sharing their expertise on topics such as legal, investment, traction & growth, customer development. At Founder Centric, I translated teaching materials into practical workbooks, designed worksheets, and shared the principle concepts in newsletters & blog posts. I co-designed the Startup Tribe, a 3 month programme teaching “corporate escapees” the basics of entrepreneurship. I have designed & delivered workshops on a variety of topics for early-stage entrepreneurs working in digital tech & social enterprise. The slides are available on my LinkedIn profile via SlideShare, and linked to on my personal website. I have drawn on these thematic inputs when mentoring South Korean MBA students and early stage startup founders in Gaza. I designed & delivered a workshop on ecosystem development to 20+ international city practitioners & urban policy makers at the TechTown Transnational Meeting. Over the past 3 years, I have built up a body of evidence (qualitative and quantitative) of ecosystem development “best practice”. I have used this evidence in policy discussions at with the public sector in Sheffield which will inform a Digital Action Plan.

Expertise support to local authorities and other stakeholders in designing & delivering integrated and participatory policies

E.1. Knowledge on participatory methods and tools for co-production and implementation of local polices : 
Whilst in Peru, I led on the formation of an NGO network, bringing together leaders from local and international NGOs for knowledge sharing & mutual support. Through organising several meetups and events, we became the representative voice of NGOs in the local area. This enabled us to sit at the table in meetings with local government & contribute to ongoing discussions about sustainable development policies in the local area. In order to remain representative, we needed to proactively reach out to our immediate stakeholders & get their buy-in. There was often mistrust between the local government & the NGO community, predominantly due to certain negative influences of tourism on the local area. I used my skills in mediation & conflict resolution in order to ensure that we could have an open & transparent dialogue, in which the motivations of all parties were clearly communicated so that we could work together for a common goal, which was the sustainable development of the local area.
E.2. Knowledge on integrated approach for the design, delivering, monitoring and evaluation of urban strategies/policies: 
I worked as Community Engagement Manager and as Programme Lead for Tech North, a government funded body working to promote tech in the North of England. I was keen to ensure that we were measuring our impact over time & that we had the tools in place to enable that we could monitor the effectiveness of our programmes. I ran an internal workshop about impact measurement for Tech North based on Theory of Change. This workshop enabled us as a team to establish our assumptions (i.e. that the digital tech sector is the fastest growing in the UK, and that support for digital tech entrepreneurs therefore leads to economic growth and jobs creation), and map out our inputs, outputs, impact, and outcomes. I led the team in a process to establish qualitative & quantitative metrics for ongoing monitoring. Also at Tech North, as Programme Lead for Founders’ Network, I established a baseline survey for participants, plus regular monitoring surveys after each event that gave me ongoing qualitative and quantitative data. I used this data to iterate & improve the programme based on feedback, as well as monitor & evaluate the impact of the programme over time.
E.3. Awareness of the main policy and funding schemes for sustainable urban development at EU and national level: 
In my local area, I subscribe to newsletters from the Sheffield City Region Growth Hub & keep myself up to date via social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, and Medium) with relevant local debates in sustainable urban development. I participate in roundtables and attend panel discussions with local policy officials on topics such as coordinating a Sheffield City Region response to the national Industrial Strategy. I am an active participant in the regular “Vibrant Sheffield” meetings and discussions, organised by Grant Thornton, that bring together public & private sector individuals to develop collaborative actions that positively contribute to sustainable urban development of Sheffield. Nationally & internationally, I subscribe to newsletters from Urban Innovations Actions, Urban Agenda for the EU, and URBACT, as well as referring to their websites. For grant & funding information, I refer to local tender experts, subscribe to the YORTender portal for opportunities in my local area, and subscribe to the Innovate UK & Federation of Small Businesses newsletters. I actively use Twitter [http://bit.ly/2r71hfc], LinkedIn [http://bit.ly/2rGyaOr], and Medium [http://bit.ly/2s92frq], and have built up a significant following. I find that these platforms provide easy access to the latest themes, debates, and discussions about sustainable urban development, whether that is a quick discussion on a Twitter thread, or an in-depth opinion piece from a thought-leader on Medium.
E.4. Ability to understand specific local situations and adapt tools and content to different local realities: 
As Community Engagement Manager for Tech North I spent time carrying out research into best practice for community engagement & ecosystem development for digital tech entrepreneurs, learning about examples from across the world, some well-known (Silicon Valley and London), others less so (Milwaukee, USA and Sofia, Bulgaria). I then applied best practice in community engagement, within a framework of my understanding of the local realities (in particular, the economic profile & political history of the cities). When I was commissioned to write a report into the Digital Creative scene in Sheffield, I used the KPMG Magnet Cities report as my framework for investigation. I considered Sheffield’s creative digital scene through the lens of the seven principles that KPMG have established make a city “magnetic”, in other words, what is it that attracts and retains young wealth creators to a city. To use this framework effectively, I needed a thorough & grounded understanding of KPMG’s approach & examples, and the ability to apply it to a local context.
Summary Expertise: 
I have provided expert support to local authorities & other stakeholders in designing & delivering integrated & participatory policies. In Peru, I established an NGO network by building collaborative relationship with stakeholders. We were a representative voice of NGOs & contributed to discussions with local government about sustainable development policies. I facilitated open & transparent dialogue, understanding the motivations of stakeholders to collaborate for the common goal of sustainable development. For Founders’ Network, I conducted regular monitoring & evaluation that provided qualitative & quantitative data. I used this to iterate the programme & evaluate its impact. I ran a workshop about impact measurement for Tech North which enabled us to map our inputs, outputs, impact, and outcomes. I participate in roundtables with Sheffield City Region policy officials. I actively participate in “Vibrant Sheffield” meetings bringing together public & private sector individuals to develop collaborative actions that contribute to sustainable urban development. At Tech North, I researched global best practice for community engagement & ecosystem development. I applied best practice to the North of England within a framework of the region’s economic profile & political history. As author for a report on Sheffield's Digital Creative sector, I used KPMG Magnet Cities study as a framework. This required understanding KPMG’s approach & an ability to apply it to a local context.

Informations

Residence location:
United Kingdom
Languages:
English - Mother tongue
Foreign Languages level: 
Foreign languages: 
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Foreign Languages level: 
Foreign languages: 
Email:
hello@lauraihbennett.com

Area of expertise