Agenda item

The Chairman invited Amanda Pullen (Improvement Support Manager) to introduce the report.

Amanda reported that the LGA’s Strategic Management Team had committed to ensuring that there was an ‘improvement’ focus across the whole conference and she took members through the programme. As with last year’s virtual conference, it was proposed that ‘Spotlight on’ sessions would replace the in-person Innovation Zone. Amanda sought members views on the focus for one of these sessions, the two options being 1) Spotlight on Innovation - COVID-19 Innovations to take into the future; and 2) Spotlight on Learning – Voice of the Sector: LGA Supporting rough sleepers at a time of national crisis.

Members’ comments and questions:

·       Support was expressed for both option 1 and a hybrid of combining options 2 and 1. On option 1, it was suggested that this could feature a larger number of shorter examples (possibly as an ‘open mic’ type session), rather than just 4 or 5 as presented.

·       Cllr Liz Green, the Board’s Equalities Advocate, asked why there wasn’t an equalities section in the report when ensuring equal access was vital for conference organisation. Amanda reassured members that EDI implications were being fully considered as part of the conference planning.

·       Members expressed concern about the slow take up of places on the conference so far and suggested that the charging needed to be looked at again if it was putting people off enrolling. Dennis Skinner said that the LGA Board had taken the decision to charge based on the sunk charges from last year’s conference and the cost of the new conference platform software. He said that the charge was less than for the last in-person event but he agreed to feed members’ comments back to Group Leaders.

·       The marketing of the event was queried given the potential for ‘Zoom fatigue’ amongst participants. Lusi Manukyan (Senior Adviser – Improvement & Policy) responded that the event was going to be more interactive this year and was going to be taking place on a new and improved virtual platform. It would also be held over 3 days rather than a whole week.

Decision:

·       Improvement & Innovation Board noted the report

Actions:

·       Dennis Skinner to feed back members comments on charging to LGA Group Leaders.