Welcome back to in-person conferences – striking a balance

| |by

Kate Maughan, Director of Member Engagement

You said, we did

We know that NHC members value the opportunity to come together. The challenges of the last two years have meant we needed to adapt and modernise the way we deliver our programme of events and engagement opportunities. As we emerge from the worst of the pandemic, we remain committed to enabling our members to build strong and deep relationships with each other, and with decision makers and policy shapers. We aim to deliver an unrivalled member experience – this blog sets out how we intend to do that.

In 2020, our focus was on in-person opportunities; offering a digital option for events was on the radar for the future, but we had concerns – do members want this? Does everyone have the technology they need to access digital events? Will anyone attend?

Fast forward to today, and we have the answers to those questions and more. We asked you what you’d like to see from us, and the response was overwhelmingly in favour of keeping most of our engagement events online. Here at the NHC, we’ve found that offering digital events allows us to engage even more frequently, and across a wider range of topics, than we were able to do in-person. Key points from the feedback were:

Network meetings, roundtables and seminars are better delivered online

Because these engagement events tend to be shorter, you told us the travelling required at either side wasn’t a good use of your time. Members feel that the information shared at these events, and the resulting discussion, works equally well – and in many cases, better – online.

Larger conferences are better delivered in-person

We know that networking with colleagues is really important, but difficult – if not impossible! -to replicate online. You told us that for larger, full day conferences you would prefer to attend in person, so that’s what we’ll do in 2022.

A note on sustainability

If you’ve seen our new corporate plan, you’ll know that we’re putting sustainability at the heart of all of our activities. We want to minimise our environmental impact and embed sustainability as a core principle of how we work, and as part of this, you’ll notice some changes at our in-person events. Conferences traditionally create a lot of waste and leave a large carbon footprint: booklets, flyers, and programmes that sit on desks for a few weeks then make their way to the recycling bin. We want to change that.

  • All event documents will be online, with QR codes on tables so you can access the very latest programme on the day. Documents will be optimised for viewing on laptops, mobile phones and tablets;
  • We’ll email materials to you in advance, so if you do need a paper copy for any reason, you’ll have time to print one;
  • We’ll ask you to bring your organisational name badge to the event so other delegates can identify you, and vice versa – this means we won’t need to print badges to use on the day.

Upcoming in-person conferences

21st June 2022, Leeds: National Resident Involvement Conference: Levelling Up Resident and Community Engagement

14th July 2022, Leeds: Levelling Up: Housing at the Heart of a Rebalanced Country

9th November 2022, Manchester: Northern Housing Summit (bookings will open soon)

If you have any feedback on our plans for conferences, or would like to discuss, please don’t hesitate to get in touch: kate.maughan@northern-consortium.org.uk

We’re looking forward to welcoming you back very soon.