REPRESENTATIVES of arts organisations around the country will gather in Newcastle today to explore the notion that there’s strength and safety in numbers.

Stronger Together is the name of a conference hosted by Northern Stage, Newcastle, with Pilot Theatre, which is based in York.

The conference, supported by Arts Council England, will take place at the Tyneside theatre but the event will also be streamed live to venues in Manchester, Bristol and London.

Some of the most forward-thinking leaders in the cultural sector will be sharing their views at an event which is designed to shatter the conference stereotype of people sitting in a lecture there.

Northern Stage – which recently collaborated with Sheffield Theatres for its well-received production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – has transformed its main auditorium into a giant living room, with all 450 seats removed, where delegates will be encouraged to talk about what they want to collaborate on and their own experiences of partnerships.

Case studies of successful strategic collaborations will be illustrated across the building.

Collaboration in action will be demonstrated by a speed-dating event where artists, producers and policy-makers will chat to each other for three minutes each about an idea they have or to make a new connection.

Erica Whyman, chief executive of Northern Stage, said: “This is a very exciting opportunity to bring together artists, producers, strategic thinkers and funders from across the country to celebrate existing collaborations, and challenge each other to be bolder, more generous and clearer about why and how we want to work together.

“The day is an experiment to see how creative we can be in talking to one another across four cities and a chance to meet new collaborators from all the cultural forms.”

Alison Clark-Jenkins, regional director, Arts Council England, added: “This event reflects our aspirations to use the real experiences of the sector to work together to build our collective knowledge.”