The Nelson Mandela University, in collaboration with Bath University and the University of South Africa, hosted the InsideOut Engagement Festival from 27-28 November 2023 to celebrate engagement as an important institutional mission of universities. Engagement with multiple stakeholder communities ‘inside and outside’ university spaces, alongside learning, teaching and research, must agitate for equalising relationships placing universities side-by-side with communities to co-create a socially just world. Through a two-day symposium, Mandela University, Bath and UNISA universities aimed to highlight the importance of collaborative and purpose-driven engagement in which various stakeholders work toward a shared purpose. In addition, this symposium focused on the idea of ‘convergence’ as a way of ‘seeing’ and ‘doing’ engagement as propositioned by Muthwa in 2018. This idea took firmer shape in collaboration with various partners, most notably the University of South Africa and the University of Bath, within the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and work of the Covid Coordinating Committee (CCC). Day one of the event was opened to the general public, showcasing different sets of engagement work and day two celebrated existing collaborations with institutional partners, whilst celebrating engagement work undertaken during the COVID19 pandemic.