Unleashing the power of adviceOn Thursday 1 October 2009, over 150 delegates from across the advice sector gathered at the Studio in Birmingham for Unleashing the Power of Advice, AdviceUK’s second annual conference.
AdviceUK was delighted by the turnout –every region of the UK, every advice area and every size of member was represented. You can see it all as it happened on the Photos page.
Having feasted on bacon butties, muffins and coffee the delegates were welcomed by Steve Johnson, AdviceUK’s Chief Executive, who in turn introduced the speakers for the morning – Mike Bell of MBARC and Mick McAteer of the Financial Inclusion Centre – who both gave talks on the challenges facing the sector and ideas for making the most of the current circumstances and not rolling over.
We were delighted to be joined by two very different but equally interesting politicians.
Henry Bellingham, Shadow Spokesman for Justice for the Conservative Party spoke excellently about some of the funding issues faced by the sector and some of the ideas for meeting them.
Clare Short, Independent Labour MP, in whose constituency the conference was held, gave a passionate and inspiring talk about the valuable work done by the advice sector and met all questions head on.The day also included a number of practical and exciting workshops.
The Working Together For Advice teams gave valuable updates on the quality standard, collaborative working and equality and diversity in the advice sector.
Youth Access and AgeUK led sessions on the specific advice needs of younger and older people, while Sue Brown of Tower Hamlets Law Centre and Stephanie Dickinson of Island Advice Centre led people in discussions on mergers and consortia.
Many advice centres have internal challenges and Wesley Harcourt led a session on management committees. Turn2Us talked about helping clients with money by using online tools. David Hawkes, AdviceUK’s money advice co-ordinator ran a packed session on issues in money advice.
The conference also continued AdviceUK’s campaign on systems thinking with a full session on what the crucial work being done in this area, and a fascinating exhibition supported by Nottingham Council. Nottingham has entered a strong project to introduce systems thinking to advice services and many delegates, among them Henry Bellingham, took a strong interest the techniques being trialled. More news coming soon!
AdviceUK once again held its Annual General Meeting at the end of the conference, which was well attended.However, this was a special day for AdviceUK too. In September we celebrated our 30th anniversary of supporting the vital work being carried out by you. No birthday is complete without a cake and Clare Short made the inaugural cut for us.
Finally, no event such as this is possible without the support of various exhibitors and sponsors. Once again we ran a competition, this year to win an iPod. This was sponsored by Paymex, to whom we are very grateful. The lucky winner was Katie Roberts of the University of Derby Students’ Union. Congratulations Katie.Our principal sponsor was CCLA so many thanks to them for their generous support.We would also like to thank Allied International Credit who sponsored the attendance of 5 smaller members who would otherwise not have been able to attend.
However, we are, of course, grateful to all our exhibitors and sponsors and we encourage you to find out more about them by visiting their web sites. You can find out more on the Sponsors and exhibitors page.
The AdviceUK conference will return next year. If you have any ideas, please do not hesitate to contact us – and if you attended this year’s event, please do remember to fill in the online evaluation form. We'll be sending you details very shortly.
Jonathan Moles
Business Development Manager
See links for documents, presentations and other infomation:
http://www.adviceuk.org.uk/about-us/annualconference/conferencepresentations
http://www.adviceuk.org.uk/about-us/annualconference/conferencephotos
http://www.adviceuk.org.uk/about-us/annualconference
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