In order to identify any critical objections early, be on the lookout for meetings of key stakeholders and be ready to present an outline of your vision for a centre. At this stage it’s not a good idea to set up a special meeting, or invite people yourself, as the vision for the centre has not had input from key stakeholders. If you pitch your ideas too publicly before seeking everyone’s input many will not feel included. However, if you see an opportunity to float your vision for a new centre in the agenda of an appropriate meeting, then take it. Bonus points if the meeting includes some people who stand to benefit from the establishment of a centre. Remember, when reaching out to be added to the meeting agenda, that you have nothing more than an idea and want to informally gauge interest.
For the Sussex Cancer Research Centre, I knew clinical cancer researchers, nurses and allied health professionals had not been involved in previous attempts to unite researchers. Therefore, when a meeting of clinical cancer researchers appeared on my radar, I asked the oncologist running the meeting whether he would mind me presenting for 5 minutes. The presentation outline reflected the outline responses we developed in Chapter 1. Why do we need a centre? Who would be involved? Hasn’t this been tried before? What is different this time? and what might its identity be? The presentation finished with opening the floor with questions such as “Should we do this?”, “Am I missing anyone/anything?”. Having received positive feedback from this group I knew when moving forwards with a vision document I could claim to have support of hospital-based cancer researchers which would differentiate us from previous attempts to unite people within a research centre for cancer research.