Why you should be at Stronger Things 2024
Returning for its fifth year, Stronger Things 2024 will be a day to remember full of inspiring sessions and insights to help you hardwire community power into your work. Summer Simpson sets out five reasons you won’t want to miss it.
This year’s Stronger Things takes place in the toughest of climates. Financial pressures are biting, a tsunami of rising demand is pushing services to the brink and delivering under immense pressure has become the operating norm.
Across our stages, Stronger Things will respond to this challenging landscape, help build the momentum for change and provide ideas to move community power from a bold vision to a practical reality.
Here are five reasons you won’t want to miss it:
1. Learn about the art of the possible
Whether you’re just beginning your journey or you’re a community power veteran, you’ll find fresh insights to help you in your role.
Head to a stage of your choice to dive into the practicalities of putting communities in the driving seat. Hear from practitioners Samira Ben Omar, Mick Ward and Brendan Martin on what it takes to create real change in our places, head to our Big Conversations stage for a session on providing better preventative care, or join an online workshop on developing community capacity and resilience that will draw on 15 years of learning from the Big Local programme.
“Exceptional showcase of what is working well and happening in localities that experience inequity of power.”
ST23 participant
2. Push the limits of community-led approaches
In an age of increasing division, polarisation is playing out in our places, jeopardising our communities and our social fabric.
We will explore how community-led approaches are creating new opportunities for dialogue and building trust. We’ll hear from people involving communities in difficult conversations, from tackling extremism to making trade-offs around climate change.
We’ll also have a keynote speech from social entrepreneur Ruth Ibegbuna, founder of The Roots Programme – an initiative born in the wake of Brexit to bring different communities together to connect across divides.
“Really enjoyed feeling the passion for the cause(s) in the room and online.”
ST23 participant
3. Leave equipped with new energy and renewed purpose
Turn on your out of office and make room for some blue-sky thinking.
Our agenda is full of inspiring insights from the community power movement in action. Everything from overcoming the powerlessness of poverty to building belonging in your place – and plenty in between.
Whether you want to sit back and drink it in, roll up your sleeves and put an approach into practice, interrogate an expert or be part of a focused discussion, Stronger Things is a chance to zoom out from your day-to-day, recharge and reboot the way you work.
But our expert speakers won’t be doing all the talking. Peer-learning is in our DNA so come prepared to share ingredients for great places and stretch our collective imagination with colleagues across the public sector.
“Blown away by how great this conference was. Lots of food for thought.”
ST23 participant
4. Connect with trendsetters and fellow travellers
Do you sometimes feel like you’re swimming against the tide in your organisation, fighting the status quo alone? Or have you been charged with implementing that big idea and wish you could talk to someone who has ‘been there and done that’?
Stronger Things is a space to connect with new faces, old friends and engaging ideas. Whether you’re attending in person or online, you’ll have ample opportunity to put faces to names and meet like-minded people and organisations fanning the flames of community power.
You’ll also have the chance to hear from people setting the agenda for change at the local and national level, including Camden Council’s Georgia Gould and Jim McMahon MP, Shadow Minister for Local Government and English Devolution.
“It was wonderful to feel shared positivity, companionship and belonging with this empowered and hopeful tribe.”
ST23 participant
5. Join from the comfort of your own space
Stronger Things is purposefully hybrid. If you missed your chance to secure a space IRL or you can’t make it to London on 4 June, you can expect much more than a typical webinar from our virtual experience.
Our online agenda is full of exclusive, interactive sessions where you’ll have the chance to talk to fellow attendees, share your thoughts, ask questions and gain fresh perspectives in an energetic and dynamic setting, all from the comfort of your own space.
With a choice of two streams throughout the day you can either tune in live to the magnificent Guildhall or join workshops exclusively for online attendees.
And that’s not all – the day will be facilitated by our experienced hosts who will guide you through engaging discussions and ensure that sessions are tailored to your needs and interests.
“I was really impressed with the online experience – it didn’t feel like an afterthought like it often does. There was a bit of a buzz online too.”
ST23 participant
If you have already secured your space, grab your diary, take a look at our agenda and plan your day out of the office at the community power event of the year.
If you haven’t, tickets remain to join us online. Spaces are totally free for New Local members and community organisations and heavily subsidised for the public sector and not-for-profits.
Thanks to our partners for making this event possible: Local Trust, The MJ, Care City, CitizenLab, City of London, Hello Lamp Post, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, LGC, MEAM, OCSI, Peabody and Public World.
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