BackA gathering of great minds
The Living Streets Annual Supporters Conference
Living Streets held their annual Supporters Conference 2010 on Saturday 10th July, with 66 attendees enjoying a mix of staff workshops, guest speakers and awards throughout the day.
This free event brought together our supporters, campaigners and staff to discuss common issues, share successes and develop future pedestrian agendas. Proceedings kicked off with an introduction of the issues facing pedestrians by Michael Loveday, Chair of Living Streets, followed Chief Executive Tony Armstrong’s presentation on how the charity has been making an impact.
Key speaker Colin Davis from the Public Realm Information and Advice Network took the podium as the key note speaker, speaking on how to influence and talk to traffic engineers and other local authority officers to achieve your ends. The speech was particularly engaging for our supporters, who we encourage to be as active as possible in their local community, as it exposed the challenges of working in a local context.
Networking between staff, supporters and trustees was ongoing throughout the day and in particular during the lunch hour where a ‘market place’ was held to give people the chance to discover more about Living Streets. Supporters and staff alike shared knowledge, understanding and successes on all aspects of Living Streets work. Feedback from the day suggested that meeting like-minded individuals who are all campaigning for the same purpose was one of the highlights of the conference.
Supporters chose two workshops to take part in, all of which were geared to help people take action and make an impact in local campaigning. Staff presented workshops ranging from the ‘Effective 20mph campaigning’ to ‘Working with the media’, with emphasis on activities and interaction.
The Living Streets Award Ceremony also took place with five categories rewarded. Winners were:
- Best Local Authority: Buckingham County Council
- Best Local Walking Works Business/Employer: Anglia Ruskin (Chelmsford and Cambridge)
- Best Local Group: Wirral and Chester
- Best Local Group Campaigner: Stephen Young
- Walk to School Campaigner of the Year: The Link Secondary School (Sutton)
Thank you to all who nominated, and well done to the winners. Nominations who received "highly commended" awards will also be awarded in recognition of the high calibre of entries received.
Living Streets would like to thank all those who attended, for participating enthusiastically and making the day a success.
“Thank you so much for organising the conference, it was lovely to meet so many committed and enthusiastic staff and supporters." Helen, West London
“Many thanks for a brilliant day. It was great to meet the enthusiastic and friendly staff and others interested in improving our streets. All the presentations were very useful.”
Vanessa Gregory
“I found the conference very enjoyable and inspiring.” Jady
Tony Armstrong, Chief Executive of Living Streets said:
“We were delighted to host another successful Supporters Conference, and would like to thank everybody who came along and got involved. We hope that the event inspired our supporters both long-term and new to make a real difference in their local area. Our streets wont improve without your help, so we want people to get involved in any way possible.”
“We invite feedback from all those who attended, and hope to meet those who weren’t able to participate this year in a future event.”
If you’re a member of an existing Living Sreets group or branch, and didn't get a chance to attend the local groups workshop, do make sure you feed in your views on the new Local Groups Charter via your Group contact or our Forum. The consultation is open until August 31st – your opinions count, so please help us shape the best way of working together in future.
Presentations from the day:
- An introduction to Living Streets
- Tony Armstrong: Our impact
- Colin Davis: How to make an impact
- Colin Davis: factsheets on streets for pedestrians
- Highlights of the Living Streets awards
- How to attract people to local groups
- How to work with the media (several files on our Forum)
- How to help people get involved with our walking projects
Published on: 13/07/2010
