The Empty Homes Conference, organised by the Empty Homes Network and sponsored by Ad Hoc Property Management Ltd., was our best-attended yet and received the highest feedback score of any conference we have organised, with the average rating for the Conference overall standing at 4.55 out of 5.
You can see the full set of pictures of the Conference on Dropbox here.
With a fantastic selection of speakers such as Helen Williams, the new Chief Executive of the charity Empty Homes - pictured - delegates had a difficult job choosing between sessions.
Speakers came from a range of sectors, including the Community Housing Sector, Social Businesses, the private sector, and research and policy teams as well as mainstream empty homes practitioners.
The Conference kicked off with a brief and clear presentation from Nick Hilton about the Propety Guardian service provided by Ad Hoc Ltd. who sponosred the Conference again this year.
This was followed by the Policy session with Helen Williams and David Gibbens and a good selection of contributions from the floor. Delegates were then able to choose between parallel sessions that ran through until lunch.
Some sessions were double-handed - such as the one with Rob Greenland (who spoke last year) and Gill Coupland (see below) giving an update on the Leeds Empties/Empty Homes Doctor scheme outsourced to Social Business Brokers by Leeds City Council.
The hot lunch was a highlight for many, not least because of the great networking opportunities. Here, a lunchtime confab between Steve Grimshaw (Kent) and Claire Hope and Rosie Harris (Exeter City Council) demonstrated how the Birmingham Conference unites the East and the West (or something like that).
After lunch came the Awards Ceremony, sponsored again this year by Grafton (UK) Ltd., We'll be publishing further stories about the awards over the cominng few weeks with more details fof the winning submissions.
Here, Mark Byrne of Grafton gives the Highly Commended award to Elizabeth McCloskey from the Sefton Council empty homes team.
After a plenary session led by Mark Neale of Bona Vacantia the delegates once again split between the Accelerate and Propel suites, able to choose from 3 out of the 6 remaining sessions of the day.
Unsurprisingly, Andrew Lavender's Practitioner Surgery once again attracted a large crowd. He's already been told he'll have to do two sessions next year to be fair to the other speakers.
We had more stand-holders than ever. Some delegates couldn't believe their luck with all the free gifts on offer and spent most of the day loitering around the exhibition stands trying to sneak yet another pen/mug/toffee/goodie bag.
(See pictures below. Not mentioning any names, but it was Dave Stott).
You can add your views about the Conference by logging in and Commenting below.
The Conference kicked off with a brief and clear presentation from Nick Hilton about the Propety Guardian service provided by Ad Hoc Ltd. who sponosred the Conference again this year.
This was followed by the Policy session with Helen Williams and David Gibbens and a good selection of contributions from the floor. Delegates were then able to choose between parallel sessions that ran through until lunch.
Some sessions were double-handed - such as the one with Rob Greenland (who spoke last year) and Gill Coupland (see below) giving an update on the Leeds Empties/Empty Homes Doctor scheme outsourced to Social Business Brokers by Leeds City Council.
The hot lunch was a highlight for many, not least because of the great networking opportunities. Here, a lunchtime confab between Steve Grimshaw (Kent) and Claire Hope and Rosie Harris (Exeter City Council) demonstrated how the Birmingham Conference unites the East and the West (or something like that).
After lunch came the Awards Ceremony, sponsored again this year by Grafton (UK) Ltd., We'll be publishing further stories about the awards over the cominng few weeks with more details fof the winning submissions.
Here, Mark Byrne of Grafton gives the Highly Commended award to Elizabeth McCloskey from the Sefton Council empty homes team.
After a plenary session led by Mark Neale of Bona Vacantia the delegates once again split between the Accelerate and Propel suites, able to choose from 3 out of the 6 remaining sessions of the day.
Unsurprisingly, Andrew Lavender's Practitioner Surgery once again attracted a large crowd. He's already been told he'll have to do two sessions next year to be fair to the other speakers.
We had more stand-holders than ever. Some delegates couldn't believe their luck with all the free gifts on offer and spent most of the day loitering around the exhibition stands trying to sneak yet another pen/mug/toffee/goodie bag.
(See pictures below. Not mentioning any names, but it was Dave Stott).
You can add your views about the Conference by logging in and Commenting below.