Research Posters were displayed all three days of the AORE Annual Conference.
Cultivating A Collaborative Relationship Between Research and Practice: A Continued Aim for the R&P and the AORE
By Andy Szolosi
Research and Publications Committee Chair
The 2016 AORE Annual Conference saw a gathering of practitioners, researchers, industry professionals and students come together to share in their passion for the outdoor recreation and education industry. Assemblies of this sort facilitate the exchange of ideas, create opportunities for networking, and serve as inspiration that can often invigorate a person or group of people into action. Although the AORE Conference is held but once a year, it represents a very unique and important opportunity for us to reflect and also consider the prospect of what still lies ahead. That is, the AORE Conference offers us the chance to examine all that has been accomplished, while at the same time allowing us the opportunity to establish a foundation for the specific aims we hope to achieve in the year to come.
One of the many aims central to the R&P and the AORE is to cultivate a collaborative relationship between research and practice. Such aims need to be celebrated and should serve as a source of pride. The joint relationship between both ‘doing’ and ‘knowing’ is critical for us as an industry in our endeavor to have a meaningful impact in the services that we provide, the policies we inform, and the knowledge we contribute. In recognition of this notion, the R&P and the AORE have begun to implement measures that we believe will help deepen the connection between each of these seemingly interdependent activities.
In 2016, the AORE Research Symposium strengthened its ‘Call for Abstracts’ to more intentionally target and recruit collaborative efforts between both researchers and practitioners. The review of submitted abstracts included reviewers that represented both researcher and practitioner perspectives. In addition, the R&P worked with the national office to further align the review process with the core values of the association. Efforts of this type better position the Research Symposium as a forum that can truly reach across boundaries and make a meaningful difference in both research and practice. Sentiments such as this one have been echoed among the symposiums’ keynote speakers the last three years.
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