Catch up on the highlights of the 2009 DTA national conference Communities Assets Enterprise, taking place on 13-15 September 2009 in Westminster, London. Presentations, news and other useful information from the conference will be added to this page as soon as it becomes available.
The Development Trusts Association's annual national conference got off to a great start on Sunday 13 September with an informal reception at The Movieum, a movie museum, in London's Southbank. Community enterprise practitioners from across the country had the opportunity to network with other practitioners and supporters of the movement surrounded by iconic displays from the big screen including a Dalek, a Star Wars strom trooper, a Harry Potter display and much more.
On Monday morning delegates were treated to a performance by Sean Doody, currently on placement with the Sunlight Development Trust from Rochester young Offenders Institute, who opened the conference with a rat pack classic, Mack the Knife. Sunlight has been supporting Sean.
Speakers from Monday's line up included:
Andrew Robinson of CCLA investment management.
Cliff Rosenthal, President of the National federation of Community Development Credit Unions (New York), who highlighted the role of community development credit unions in the USA, how they have weathered the recent financial storms far better than banks and how the Obama administration has injected $100million in credit unions and supporting networks.
Pauline Green of Co-operatives
UK who spoke of the Power of the co-op movement in the UK both nationally and internationally to engender change. Green praised the work of DTA members and called for more partnership working and collaboration between Coops and development trusts.
Sarah Benioff, Deputy Director of the Office of the Third Sector.
And Stan Thakaekara of Just Change India who closed the morning sessions by inspiring the conference to 'think local, act global' and to find the people who share our values be they next door or in another on the other side of the world, and work with them to make change happen.
Delegates also had the opportunity to hear from representatives of a larger and a smaller development trust in London, Iain Tuckett of Coin Street Community Builders and Karen van der Merwe of the Hoxton Trust, and find out about how they have been surviving and thriving and finding local solutions to the global crisis.
Tuesday's highlights have included:
The winner of the Chris Woodcock 'Excellenece in Community Enterprise' Award for best practice around engaging with diverse communities: Acton Street Market run by Action Acton was announced on Tuesday morning. John Blackmore, Chief Excutive of Action Acton accepted the award which was presented by Gurdev Dahele MBE, Special Adviser to the DTA and Amy Woodcock, Chris Woodcock's daughter.
For further information about Acton Street Market and the other inspiring entries for the award visit: www.dta.org.uk/chriswoodcockaward
Tony Kendle of the Eden Project, Helen Housten from Community Powerdown and Rob Hopkins of Transition Towns all presented their views on how to mainstream the green agenda.
The afternoon saw an enquiry into the future of Communities Assets Enterprise a visonary look into the future of the agenda, with witnesses: John Malone of Energy4All; Manjeet Gill of Bournemouth Borough Council; Karen Lowthrop of Hill Holt Wood and a Social Enterprise Ambassador; Micheal Pyner of the Shoreditch Trust. Hugh Rolo, the DTA's Head of Assets and Investment provided a summary of the next steps.
For some real time discussion from conference delegates around the themes of the conference visit the Asset Transfer Unit (ATU) twiter site: https://twitter.com/signup Where the ATU has been encouraging delegates to tweet on the topics important to them.
