This event occured in the past.

When: 12 June 2010 to 13 June 2010

Time: 11:30

Ken Loach, England v USA on the big screen at one of the most prestigious venues in London - it can only be the SD Annual Conference 2010.

Our Annual Conference is being held in London at IET London: Savoy Place on Saturday 12^th June and Sunday 13^th June, and this is your chance to join us and join the debate.

We'll have sessions on football finance, a grown-up debate about the future of football with Club Chairmen, activists from the leading campaigners from Supporters' Trusts and leading political thinkers.

Booking couldn't be simpler, and the for the price of a round, you can meet like-minded fans from up and down the Country and across Europe, get your lunch and refreshments and a reception in the evening showing England v USA in the World Cup on a big screen.

On Sunday you can hear from Ed Mayo from Co-ops UK (and formerly of the New Economics Foundation) meet supporters' trust activists from across the Movement.

 Online registration has now closed.

Saturday 12th June: A Better Vision for Football
Start time	End time	Session	Room
11:30	12:00	Registration	Lancaster/Maxwell rooms
12:00	12:30	Opening Plenary	Lecture Theatre
12:30	13:30	Social Value of Football Research Launch	Lecture Theatre
13:30	14:30	Lunch	Riverside room
14:30	16:00	Workshops	Maxwell room Common Room Siemens room
16:00	16:30	Break	Riverside room
16:30	18:00	Closing plenary: A Better Vision for Football	Lecture Theatre
18:00	21:30	Reception	Riverside room

 

Sunday 13th June: There is an Alternative
Start time	End time	Session	Room
10:00	10:30	Registration	Lancaster/Maxwell rooms
10:30	11:30	AGM	Lecture Theatre
11:30	12:30	Networking session	Lecture Theatre
12:30	13:30	Lunch	Riverside room
13:30	14:30	Workshops #1	Maxwell room Common Room Siemens room Lecture Theatre
14:30	14:40	Convenience break
14:40	15:40	Workshops #2	Maxwell room Common Room Siemens room
15:40	16:00	Break	Riverside Room
16:00	16:30	Closing Plenary: There is an Alternative	Lecture Theatre
16:30		Conference close (or AGM wrap up)	Lecture Theatre

 

Rates

If you are a member of a supporters' trust then you qualify for the members' rate.

Pre event registration rate  - from Saturday 29^th May until Thursday 10^th June (midnight)

On the day registration rate
	1 day	2 days
Member fee	£15	£25
Non member fee	£20	£30

Prices include VAT

Please note: Online registration will close at midnight on Thursday 10^th June. If you miss this deadline you will need to register on the day of the event and pay the on the day rate.

Venue

Institute of Engineering & Technology (IET London: Savoy Place)

2 Savoy Place, London, WC2R 0BL

Click here for a map

Contact

Vicki Goodfellow
(t) 020 7273 1592
(f) 020 7283 5740
(e) victoria.goodfellow@supporters-direct.org

Miscellaneous

Got a view on the game? Then tell the World!

This year you've got the chance to tell everyone about what you would do to sort out the game you love. What's wrong with football that you want to change? How have these problems affected you, your family, friends and community? Is there anything your supporters' trust has been campaigning on to change it?

We’ll be providing an easy way to record and upload your video – in fact if you've already done one then when our new Facebook page is live you can upload it yourself!

Messageboard

We have set up a conference messageboard at http://excoboard.com/SupportersDirect so you can talk about the event, arrange meetings with other delegates, organise car shares, group rail bookings and hotel information.

Hotels and Travel Information

The venue is in central London, so there are lots of hotels to choose from, such as:

http://www.strandpalacehotel.co.uk

http://www.travelodge.co.uk

http://www.premierinn.com/en

http://www.imperialhotels.co.uk

http://www.guoman.com

Or try an online booking agent:

http://www.hotelclub.net

http://www.laterooms.com

The nearest Underground stations is Embankment (District, Circle, Bakerloo and Northern Lines). Please be aware that there are closures on the Underground this weekend that may affect your route. You are strongly advised to check your route (see link below) before you travel.

It's also within walking distance of both Waterloo, Waterloo East and Charing Cross mainline stations.

You may find the following websites useful:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk (London travel info)

http://www.ncp.co.uk (parking info)

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk (train times)

http://www.nationalexpress.com/coach/index.cfm (coach travel)

Looking for a car share? Need a few extra people to block-book train tickets? Join our messageboard to talk to other conference delegates: http://excoboard.com/SupportersDirect

Exhibitors

Throughout the weekend there will be organisations with exhibition stands at the event conference so during lunch and refreshment breaks you will have the opportunity to visit the stalls and gather their latest information. Exhibitors already include:

Co-operatives UK

Customers Really Matter

The Football Association

The Football Supporters' Federation

The Homeless World Cup

Keta Sandlanders FC

Pools Predict

The National Association of Disabled Supporters

There will also be a Trust marketplace so you can gather information from different supporters' trusts.

 

Session Details

Saturday 12th June 2010: A Better Vision for Football

Opening Plenary (12:00 to 12:30 - Lecture Theatre)

Our opening speaker is Ken Loach, the critically acclaimed director of films from Kes, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, to the recent football cult classic ‘Looking For Eric'. Ken is a long-time supporter of greater fan ownership and involvement, a long-time supporter and former Director of Bath City FC.

Back to timetable

 Social and Community Value of Football Launch (12:30 to 13:30 - Lecture Theatre)
Football Clubs will speak about their value as a business, or how much money they might turnover in a year, but what of their value to the community they are associated with?

As more companies have become aware of their social responsibilities in recent years football has often claimed to have more potential to do good than other industries, but how great is this power, and is it being used as much as it could be?

Supporters Direct commissioned research to investigate how football clubs can account for their social value, considered if and how different ownership structures, including supporter owned, can influence the social value and considered whether regulatory issues had any affect on clubs positive influence in their community.

Lead researcher Dr Adam Brown from Substance will provide an overview of the research, its findings and its recommendations to help improve the club's social value. He will be joined by a panel, including David Conn (sports writer for The Guardian) to discuss his findings and how football can incorporate its recommendations.

Back to timetable

 Workshops (14:30 to 16:00 - Maxwell Room, Common Room & Siemens Room)

Back to timetable

Social and Community Value of Football (with Dr Adam Brown & Adrian Ashton)
Following on from the launch in the opening session, this workshop will take a more in depth look at the methodology, its case studies and its recommendations.

Back to timetable

Future Football Regulation & Policy
The debate about football regulation, supporter involvement in their clubs and the overall governance of the game has now entered the mainstream.

The workshop takes a closer look at the various approaches/policies and considers their merits, how they may be implemented and what football would look like if they were brought in.

Back to timetable

Just how broken is football's financial model? (with Dr. John Beech)
We've now seen well in excess of 50 insolvencies at football clubs since 1992 compared to no insolvencies in the Bundasliga during this period, leading to most expert commentators on football finance now agreeing that ‘light-touch' regulation is at an end.

We'll be hearing from one of the most respected academics in his field, Dr John Beech of Coventry University, about what has failed and what he believes needs to change.

Back to timetable

 Closing session: A Better Vision for Football (16:30 to 18:00 - Lecture Theatre)
If we accept that change is needed to the game and part of this should involve greater fan involvement and greater levels of financial control, how exactly will the game look in the future?

The closing session will consider the views of four different perspectives and include a Q and A session.

The panellists are:

• Oliver Houston, Vice Chair, MUST (Manchester United Supporters' Trust)
• Gavin Megaw, Director of External Affairs, The Football League
• Lee Strafford, former Chair of Sheffield Wednesday
• Christian Mueller, former CFO of the DFL - German Football League

Back to timetable

 Reception (18:00 to 21:30 - Riverside Room)
After the conference we will be screening England's first World Cup group game against the USA - bar available.

Back to timetable

 Sunday 13th June 2010: There is an Alternative

AGM (10:30 to 11:30 Main Auditorium)
We've scheduled an hour for the AGM which from previous experience should be plenty of time. If we're getting close to the hour and there's still lots of business left, then (with members' permission) we'll be proposing to adjourn at 11:30 and finish off in the afternoon plenary, in order that we keep to the day's running order.

Only trusts in full membership are entitled to vote at the AGM. If you would like to check your trusts membership status, please email Vicki Goodfellow

Your trust's vote will be automatically given to the primary contact of the trust, if they are attending. If they are not, the trust must let us know who they would like the vote to be given to in advance of the day. Please email Vicki if you wish to change your registered voter.

Voting cards will be placed in the conference badges so please make sure you pick up a new badge on the Sunday, even if you have attended on the Saturday.

Please be aware that it is the trust's responsibility to let us know who will be the nominated voter if the primary contact is unavailable.

Networking Session (11:30 to 12:30 Lecture Theatre)
We know that the solutions faced by many trusts have already been faced and overcome by others and that the best source of help is often someone in a similar position as you were. We also know that the chance to network is one of the biggest benefits attendees get from the conference, so we're running this session based on the ideas of co-operators working to improve networking and self-help amongst co-operators. Think of it as speed networking.

Back to timetable

 Workshops # 1 (13:30 to 14:30 - Lecture Theatre, Maxwell Room, Common Room & Siemens Room)

Using social media to get your message across
The increasing usage of social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like) present a new opportunity for campaigning groups to use these sites as tools.

How can supporters' trusts use them to their advantage? Have they replaced more traditional forms of communicating and campaigning, or are they complementary? We'll be exploring some of these questions, and taking a look at some of the ways you can use these fast-developing tools to your advantage in your campaigns, to communicate with the wider fanbase - and the challenges they can present to organisations like supporters' trusts.

Planning for Community Projects
So your trust wants to make a difference to the local community or perhaps celebrate your fans and the club you support. With so many options for potential projects how do you decide on what to do, and perhaps more importantly, make sure you do it well? This session will give you the chance to discuss ideas and introduce you to a planning tool which will ensure your project has maximum impact.   

Trust Showcase 1 - working in partnership with your club
With so much going on at a local level it is often difficult to fully appreciate the work of other trusts, see the successes they have had and how they've achieved them. These two sessions will give you an opportunity to hear from supporters' trusts that have had a particularly busy year for different reasons - be it running campaigns, scrutinising their clubs, engaging and growing their membership or building partnerships and influence - there should be something for everyone.

We know that the relationship that a trust has with the club they support can have a big bearing on the type of work that goes on, so in the first session we will hear from trusts that have a good partnership with their club, whereas in the second session we will hear from trusts that either have no working relationship or a begrudging one at best.

As well as short presentations from each trust there will an opportunity to quiz the presenters and share best practice from around the movement.

A Consultation on Supporters Direct Governance
As part of the process of the Supporters Direct governance reforms, Clare Oakley, Secretary of Supporters Direct, will be running a short session. The possible reforms have already gone through consultation with considerable positive feedback.

Some of the proposals for implementation will be tabled at the AGM. This session Clare will provide a short presentation on the review and will also be available for any questions.

 Back to timetable

 Workshops # 2 (14:40 to 15:40 - Maxwell Room, Common Room & Siemens Room)

Ways to know your club is up the financial creek before it enters administration (with Dr. John Beech )
In this session Dr John Beech, one of the foremost experts on football club finances and what causes crises, walks us through the finances of a couple of well-known recent financial ‘basket cases', and shows you how to spot the signs in time to do something other than panic!

Community Shares
Community Shares are a unique method for supporters' trusts to raise investment money, whilst still retaining the one member one vote principle.

A Government-sponsored pilot is promoting the method amongst a variety of social businesses, including FC United of Manchester. Jim Brown, the lead consultant to this scheme, will provide an introduction to the topic, covering how and when it could be useful to a supporters' trust.

Andy Walsh, General Manager at FC United of Manchester, will also give a short presentation of their Community Share Issue. For more on this new scheme, visit the Community Shares website

Trust Showcase 2 - not working in partnership with your club
As in Trust Showcase 1 but we will hear from trusts that either have no working relationship or a begrudging one at best during this session.

Back to timetable

Closing Plenary: There is an Alternative (16:00 to 16:30 - Lecture Theatre), including presentation of the Richard Lillicrap Award
Supporters Trusts are part of the Co-operative movement and the new Secretary-General of Co-operativesUK, Ed Mayo will speak about the forthcoming Co-operatives Fortnight, and how he believes co-operatives - like Supporters' Trusts - have a huge opportunity in the coming months and years.

 Back to timetable