The main objective of this paper is to examine the theoretical underpinnings of workshops that are assumed to bridge academia and industry and in doing so toadvance discussions about new modes of knowledge co-production. Workshops between academia and industry are often described as "automagical" sites of knowledge production. This idea needs to be scrutinized. Is it really as simple as if simply "coming together" would make participants to engage in knowledge co-production across academia and industry?  This paper explores the different theoretical perspectives that implicitly underpin the design of the workshops and the expected outcomes. We argue that applied research in the form of workshops should be conceptualized as part of a process of scientific inquiry and learning situated (and therefore conditioned) differently than conventional research within social sciences and humanities. This paper analyses and discusses a specific workshop model called "Innovation Camp" which is organised by a project funded by the municipality in the western part of Sweden to strengthen the specific region as a good environment for living, entrepreneurship and culture.