Bookings open for Visionary Annual Conference 2023!
Logo for Visionary Annual Conference 2023, 27-28 September 2003.
Join us at Visionary’s Annual Conference as we return to Conference Aston, Birmingham on Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 September 2023.
The Annual Conference provides an opportunity for sight loss professionals to join workshops, keynote speeches, sector-wide discussions and professional networking. All these are vital as organisations navigate the changing health and social care landscape, whilst shaping service delivery to meet the evolving needs of people. We have selected inspiring keynote speakers to challenge thinking, highlight successes and share concepts to drive forward aspirations. The wider programme includes topics such as mergers, children and young people, grant fundraising, influencing policy collaboratively and AI chat bots.
With thanks to support from our sponsors, we have have been able to keep costs to a minimum. You can either book a 2 day package with overnight accommodation and dinner on 27 September, with the option to book additional accommodation on Tuesday 26 September 2023. However, you can instead select individual elements of the conference if you prefer.
Places are limited. We sold out in less than two weeks last year, so we suggest you reserve your place as soon as possible.
Important information if you are planning to drive to Conference Aston: Car Parking at Conference Aston must be booked online, prior to arrival. Please visit www.conferenceaston.co.uk/carparking where you can book and pay for your space online. You will then be sent an email permit to display in your windscreen and an entry code for the car park. Please ensure you book this, prior to setting off, as we cannot guarantee availability at the venue car park, on the day.
Early Bird offer
As ever, we are offering the opportunity to book your delegate places at an Early Bird price until midnight on Friday 30 June 2023. Bookings may close earlier if all delegate places have been booked.
Standard conference prices will apply for bookings made between Saturday 1 July and Friday 4 August 2023. Please note, if you are booking after 30 June 2023, please email Amy Pearman to check availability before booking.
All bookings close at midnight on Friday 4 August 2023, or earlier if all delegate places have been booked.
Booking form
Use the booking form to book places for yourself and your colleagues. (Opens Form Assembly.)
Keynote Speakers
We are delighted to have three inspiring keynote speakers for 2023:
- Marsha de Cordova, MP
- Sam Latif, Company Accessibility Leader, Procter & Gamble
- Louisa Wickham MBBS MD MSc FRCOphth, Medical Director & Consultant Vitreoretinal Surgeon and National Clinical Director of Ophthalmology for England
Programme
This year’s programme has been developed in response to themes, challenges and opportunities identified by Visionary members and partners throughout the year. With support from the Visionary network, we have been able to create a varied programme of workshops, speakers and facilitated discussions. Over the two days, we will be welcoming a range of speakers to share their experiences and learning across a range of workshops, including:
- Fit for the Future? Rehabilitation and Habilitation
- Chat AI Changes Everything for Everyone
- Progressive Sight Loss – Meeting the Needs of Affected Families
- Making a Real Impact – An Introduction to Realist Impact and Evaluation
- Joyful Volunteering
- Socio-Communication Needs of Visually Impaired Children.
- 10 Tips for Grant Writing, from a Fundraiser Turned Grant Assessor
- Access to Work
- Managing Mergers
- Developing Positive CEO and Chair Relations
As part of this year’s programme we are delighted to introduce a range of panel sessions. Each panel session will consider a topic of importance raised by Visionary members over recent months, including:
- The Power of Sport
- Developing Sustainable Children and Young People’s Services
- Collaborative Campaigning
We will be announcing and sharing more workshop information on social media and on our website, so you can keep up to date via the links below:
Visionary Website: Visionary Annual Conference (link opens Visionary website)
Visionary Twitter: @visionary_uk (link opens Twitter) #VisionaryConference23
Annual Awards Dinner 2023
The Visionary Annual Awards return for 2023 with new categories and a more simplified nomination process. You can nominate your own organisation or another organisation and win £500 in recognition of your amazing work across four exciting categories:
- Connect and Collaborate Award
- Develop and Share Award
- Community Impact Award
- Children and Young People’s Award
Look out for more details coming soon!
Join us for a 3 course dinner with wine (thanks to Together.ly and Associated Optical) on Wednesday 27 September 2023, relax and celebrate with friends and colleagues. We may even test your geography skills!
Conference Sponsors
The Visionary Annual Conference would not be possible without the amazing support we have received from our conference sponsors, for which we are extremely grateful. We are delighted to share a number of the organisations sponsoring this year’s event, with more to be announced in the coming weeks.
Thank you to Sight Scotland for their workshop sponsorship. We are grateful to the following partners for their sponsorship(links all open the organisation’s website):
Also, thank you so much to the following sponsors for their support:
We are really looking forward to welcoming you to Conference Aston for the Visionary Annual Conference 2023!
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