Conference
Our first National Conference took place recently at the wonderfully restored Gorton Monastery. This magnificent building was once ready to be consigned to the scrapheap before the social entrepreneur Elaine Griffiths took charge of the project, and converted it into a top-of-the-range conference centre. The history of the Monastery made it the perfect venue for our event, which explored how to realise the potential of churches.
The day was comprised of keynote speeches, hands-on workshops, and a competition where churches pitched their project in front of a “dragons’ den-style panel for a prize of £5,000 from UnLtd.
Speakers
The speeches were from some of the leading thinkers on social enterprise and heritage, including:
- Lord Wei, founder of Teach First and Government Adviser on the Big Society
- Hazel Blears, MP for Salford and Eccles
- Baroness Andrews, Chair of English Heritage
- Lord Mawson, social entrepreneur and director of One church,100 uses
- Colin Gregg, entrepreneur and lead member of Trinity Gosforth
- Anthony Roland, film director and owner of The Roland Collection, the world’s largest collection of films on art
- Guy Hollaway, principal partner of Guy Hollaway Architects LLP
- Jo Hibbard, Heritage Officer of the Methodist Church
- Dr. Jenny Freeman, director of the Historic Chapels Trust
- Malcolm McClean, social entrepreneur and director of Bearhunt
- Peter Wanless, chief executive of the Big Lottery Fund
- Cliff Prior, chief executive of UnLtd
- Rowena Francis, moderator of URC Northern Synod
Workshops
The workshops dealt with the practicalities of creating successful church projects, including information on
- overcoming the legal barriers of social enterprise
- opportunities for those on the margins, the potential of the Youth Achievement Foundation
- who's got money and how do you get it?
- people, heritage, and the role of the Heritage Lottery Fund
