{"id":2851905,"date":"2025-07-17T23:45:42","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T04:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/?p=2851905"},"modified":"2025-07-17T23:46:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T04:46:24","slug":"a-newcomers-reflections-on-the-ott-conference-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/articles\/a-newcomers-reflections-on-the-ott-conference-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"A newcomer\u2019s reflections on the OTT Conference 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As someone new to the think tank community, <a href=index-3834.html>OTT conferences<\/a>, and the African continent, I arrived in Johannesburg with much anticipation and few expectations. Following in the footsteps of IDEAS Malaysia\u2019s former CEO Tricia Yeoh, whose <a href=index-3835.html>2024 keynote<\/a> still echoes favourably among returnees, I wondered what would be made of my Australian-cum-Malaysian participation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Across two days that were long in hours but somehow kept the jet-lagged masses in high spirits, the conference provided the perfect setting for learning from collective experience. The generosity with which participants shared their experiences stimulated critical thinking on pressing issues for the sector and encouraged camaraderie among think tankers from richly diverse backgrounds.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I couldn\u2019t help but recognise much commonality among diversity. From both formal sessions and casual conversations during breaks, it\u2019s clear that research and organisational leaders face strikingly similar challenges in vastly different contexts. Perspectives from Africa to South America, developing and developed countries, and from starry-eyed newcomers to seasoned veterans, that resonated with my rapidly forming raison d&#8217;\u00eatre as IDEAS\u2019 research lead.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among the many points of resonance, four are worth specific highlight:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Opportunities for &#8216;co-creation&#8217;<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 \u00a0when <a href=index-2437.html>Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi<\/a> spoke of the potential for think tanks across Africa to work together, each harnessing individual strengths to support collective \u2018co-creation\u2019 towards evidence-based advocacy, I drew an immediate parallel with the Malaysian think tank landscape. While still learning the particulars of this landscape, forging closer cooperation with other think tanks around shared research and advocacy interests would appear likely to broaden opportunities for all involved. Mavis\u2019 words inspired a sense of action to support simmering intent.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Communicating research with purpose<\/strong> \u2014 a common theme that emerged in many parallel sessions was the challenge of research communication. Think tank leaders want researchers who understand the contemporary relevance of their studies and who can persuasively contribute to evolving debate. Many researchers struggle with this task across some or all communications mediums, which presents organisations with a choice to either upskill or rehire researchers, or to engage communications experts to lend support. The latter then opens a new frontier, needing to synchronise research and communications. One parallel session suggested a need to elevate communications in the organisational hierarchy, a second identified and proposed university curriculum changes to support the development of communications skills among future researchers, while a third saw an equal need to create a receptive ecosystem for expert voices by tackling misinformation.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Influencing different policymakers and shapers<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 <a href=index-3817.html>Damien King<\/a> spoke with impact and purpose in delivering a keynote on policy influence. He persuasively identified a need to adapt research and policy communications to three key audiences with distinct motivations: politicians, bureaucrats, and the general population. His thoughts rippled through a parallel session on \u2018getting policy unstuck\u2019 and inspired me to facilitate a further conversation offering insights from my and others\u2019 experiences as former civil servants. Establishing a joint mission that aligns the think tank, policymaker and public interests should be at the heart of policy influence.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>The adoption of tools and technologies, including AI\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014 when prompted to describe \u2018AI and I\u2019, what sprang to mind was \u2018AI and I are occasional bedfellows with trust issues\u2019. While perspectives on AI and technological change vary greatly, it seemed almost all fellow attendees were grappling with the threats and opportunities AI poses. Can AI be relied upon to automate labour-intensive activities like literature reviews, or as a shortcut to expanded outreach? Should early career aspirants fear AI replacing entry-level jobs, or see it as an accelerator to complementary high-skilled jobs? And does adoption of AI for research create opportunities for early movers to increase productivity, or does it risk denigrating a think tank brand based on rigour and expertise? There appear to be no clear-cut answers, but an imperative for think tank leaders to be actively considering these questions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Along with these thoughts, I offer my sincerest thanks to everyone in the OTT team and the wider community who contributed to a memorable and meaningful conference. I can only hope (and plot) to be part of <a href=index-1884.html>next year\u2019s conference<\/a> in Morocco!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As someone new to the think tank community, OTT conferences, and the African continent, I arrived in Johannesburg with much anticipation and few expectations. Following in the footsteps of IDEAS Malaysia\u2019s former CEO Tricia Yeoh, whose 2024 keynote still echoes favourably among returnees, I wondered what would be made of my Australian-cum-Malaysian participation. Across two [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[1517,207,220],"class_list":["post-2851905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-ottconference","tag-africa","tag-communication","article-types-opinion","people-stewart-nixon","series-ott-conference-2025-think-tanks-and-impact","theme-communications","theme-understanding-think-tanks"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2851905"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2851908,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851905\/revisions\/2851908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2851905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2851905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}