Location: Leeds, UK

Sam’s role as Collective Intelligence Manager is to lead and support Brink programmes where the surfacing and sharing of intelligence are key. Sam brings the wisdom and experiences of people together through collective intelligence mechanisms and methodologies, and builds community, traction, and energy for evidence-backed ideas. Excited by the potential of collective intelligence for change, and driven by a commitment to the principles of accessibility and actionability, Sam’s work includes evidence-related dissemination and engagement.

Before Brink, Sam worked in academia for 8 years. He is a Dr, though probably not the kind you’d want in an emergency (unless that emergency required strategic deployment of mixed qualitative methods). Sam has led research and published about the creative industries as drivers of economic development in Pakistan, the growth of virtual and augmented reality sector across Africa, the role of innovation intermediaries in tech R&D, and more.

After launching an arts magazine during his first degree, Sam accidentally became a graphic designer. For some years, Sam supported SMEs around the world with design solutions across print and web. Design thinking and sensibilities shape his work in interesting ways; from careful consideration of user experience through to impactful and informative communications.

Questions Sam is exploring in their work right now:

• How might community building encourage stakeholders to share data, evidence, and best-practice more readily for change?
• What can innovators working with different frontier technologies and across diverse challenges learn from each other?
• Can we design collective intelligence methodologies that make learning and acting collaboratively more rigorous, impactful, and human?