Who am I?

I’m David Robertson. My career is all about igniting curiosity and supporting people’s ability to grapple with, and address, big, complex issues.

Beyond Panels is a small personal project with a large ambition: break the grip the panel format has on ‘intellectual’ public (and private) events. It crystallised in early 2016 after a string of frustrating events and some great conversations with @drmattfinch, but goes back further with my experiences working at the Science Museum and Lottolab. I’ve run hundreds of diverse gatherings, from single-digit attendees to thousands of participants, working solo or more commonly in collaboration with all kinds of excellent people. Along the way, I’ve experienced, reproduced, changed, or invented dozens of event formats for purposeful engagement with complex issues. The biggest takeaways? People who show up to stuff can be incredible (not just the ‘experts’ who are invited); magic can happen if you give it space to emerge between people; and design makes or breaks any gathering.

Interesting academic research on science dialogue at the Museum’s Dana Centre was published by Sarah Davies, among others, and establish some of the theoretical underpinnings of what’s on this site. Kat Nilsson was a huge influence on my practice and I benefited greatly from working alongside a range of other creative and thoughtful event designers and collaborators such as Boho Interactive and Unlimited Theatre at the Science Museum, and from academic and practice mentors and peers in the Imperial College Science Communication Masters program.

I want anyone who feels motivated by the ideas in Beyond Panels to take them, use them, and make them better, bigger and fit for whatever place they’re applied to.