This paper demonstrates how the research-practice nexus may be strengthened in higher education by harnessing the conceptual ideas and key findings of a special issue to engage private and public organisations as partners to organise a regional workshop that is followed up by a suite of activities for teacher education institutions and their leaders to develop pre-service teachers' ICT in education competencies. The three day education deans workshop in June 2011 was organized by the Hong Kong Institute of Education together with UNESCO, Microsoft and SEAMEO. By bringing together these organisations and the regional education and ICT experts, the Asia-Pacific Education Deans Workshop provided a unique regional platform to discuss and share promising practices and lessons learnt, co-create a vision of technologies in teacher education within a community of practice, and co-construct a strategic plan to achieve that vision. (Contains 1 figure.)