Date of Conference
03 December 2020
Speakers
- Anna Bright, SWM
- Tim Haywood, SWM
- Andrew Pollard, SWM
- Shaun Spiers, Green Alliance
- Richard Partington, AceOn Group
- Ric Bravery & Emma Forde, City of Wolverhampton Council
- Ali Bell, National Express
Purpose of the conference
When we launched our 2030 Roadmap at 2019’s Conference, little did we know what was going to happen soon after. The impact of the pandemic have been huge and far-reaching, on a global scale but also here in the West Midlands. There have been implications on sustainability and on the themes related to our Roadmap which we’re becoming more familiar with. Our keynote speaker Shaun Spiers discussed the green recovery and highlighted what this meant for the West Midlands. Our 2020 virtual Conference provided members and stakeholders the opportunity to reflect on these implications, and allowed us to join together to identify ways that we can move forward positively, taking advantage of the sustainability related benefits that the lockdown provided and also allowed us to celebrate the success of our members. These successes included:
- Virtual Power Plant | AceOn Group Richard Partington discussed the huge benefits of their new ‘Renewergy’ Virtual Power Plant and highlighted the potential it has to increased energy independence and tackle fuel poverty.
- Urban Tree Planting | City of Wolverhampton Council Ric Bravery & Emma Forde discussed the successes of their urban tree planting scheme, which despite COVID-19 limitations managed to plant over 1300 trees and partner with community groups.
- West Midlands fully electric busses | National Express Ali Bell discussed how the West Midlands is taking the lead on electric busses, and highlighted that their entire bus fleet will be zero-emission by 2030. She also showed us a virtual tour of an electric bus!
We also wanted the day to give an opportunity to our delegates to meet new people and create new contacts. We had two breakout room which provided an opportunity for networking and allowed discussions on what the future priorities should be against our eight Roadmap priorities.
Feedback
“An extremely well-co-ordinated and well organised online event this morning.”“I enjoyed the member presentations and the break-out rooms appeared to work well and resulted in some good networking opportunities for attendees.”“So relaxed, friendly, informative and great discussions in breakout sessions.”“Another great event!”“Thank you @SWMtweet for a really interesting #SWMConf2020.”Contact Information
For more information contact enquiries@swm.org.uk
