Being the Best of England – Partnerships in Action

This years Professional Network Conference saw Jennie Price, Chief Executive of Sport England and Andy Blackmore, Regional Development Manager for the Rugby Football Union headline the day. The key note speakers spoke of the importance of partnership working and the value of this to ensure aims and objectives of national organisations are embedded locally.

76 delegates from across the West of England attended our 3rd annual West of England Professional Network Conference. Delegates represented organisations such as Unitary Authorities, School Sport Partnerships, National Governing Bodies, Higher and Further Education, Health Authorities and Leisure Providers.

The day, organised by West of England Sport Trust, covered a number of information sharing workshops, covering national strategies and programmes through to personal skill workshops. In these sessions delegates were able to increase their knowledge around areas such as writing effective funding bids and effective meetings.

Both our Key note speakers spoke positively about being involved in such an event:

Jennie Price said “I greatly valued the opportunity to speak – and listen – to so many experts who are actively involved in the delivery of sport at grass roots level. There were some clear messages about the challenges facing community sport, especially from local authorities, and I am very grateful to Wesport for facilitating such a useful discussion”.

Andy Blackmore spoke highly about the importance of partnership working and having the same goals, saying “It was a great opportunity to reinforce the fact that not only are we all playing the same game, we are all in the same team. Whether working for an NGB, CSP, Local Authority or Sport England we all need to work together to ensure everyone has an opportunity to benefit from all that sport can bring”.

Quotes from delegates included “speakers were very interesting and useful information”,  “Thanks very much to you and all the team for a really well organised and interesting day”,  “Many thanks for all your hard work, an excellent day”.

We also asked those attending to indicate the key points and benefits they would take away with them, feedback included “personal skill workshops were very beneficial and helpful” and “welcomed ownership in meetings to change direction, a driver not a passenger”.

The next Professional Network event will be our annual networking day on Tuesday 6th July at Ashton Court, Bristol.

Below you will find PDF versions of the presentations from the day.