Home - Social Housing Strategy Forum

Great learning and sharing of good practice. I have taken a few ideas away.

SDM ICT & Print, MKC Council

Thank you very much for your efforts in setting up and running the Local Government Strategy Forum in Cheshire this week. I thought that the organisation was exceptional - it ran on rails.

Chief Executive, Staffordshire County Council

Really enjoyed - good use of my time!

Chief Executive, Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council

The organisation of this conference is hugely impressive. From the moment I arrived throughout the day, I don't think I've ever attended a conference where the timing and movement between sessions was quite as well managed as I've encountered at this particular event. I couldn't speak highly enough of the organisers.

The discussions with the vendors in those 'speed dating' sessions, as they are branded, was actually the best approach to this that I think I have ever experienced at a conference.

Extremely helpful, snappy to the point and you weren't spending a lot of time with people who were looking to sell you products you weren't really interested in.

Senior Strategy, Performance & Planning Manager, Southwark Council

Enjoyable and thought provoking.

Head of Department - Customer Services, Norfolk County Council

Very well organised in a very pleasant environment. Very engaging & enjoyable
event

Chief Executive, Tamworth Borough Council

The huge majority are directors, corporate heads and CEOs. They are the senior decision makers. They hold the budget and decision-making power over what services they buy.

Head of Community, Net Natives

Excellent networking opportunity.

Head of Local Infrastructure and Street Management, Cambridgeshire County Council

The range of issues covered in the presentations were relevant and covered areas of good practice

Corporate Services Director, Barrow Borough Council

Excellent and very valuable use of my time.

Head of ICT Service Delivery, Islington Council

Very organised & approachable staff, good range of sessions & opportunity to
network

Director, Local Government & Fire, The Audit Commission

All of the staff were pleasant, helpful and knowledgeable.

Head of Corporate Finance and IT, Runnymede B.C.

We find these events are very well organised, providing an excellent forum for us to meet and communicate with key individuals from across the sector. The format and structure of the events provide plenty of opportunities for interaction and discussion.

Marketing communications manager, Management Consultants, Atkins

I think the fact that the presentations are done in bite-size chunks gives you a flavour of the sort of initiatives that people have been engaged with. It has been fascinating, really, to see the diversity of things that are happening across the country and the services at the current time.

We have done things like the speed networking where I've had lots of very short sessions with them and that's given me a lot of ideas for companies that I’d like to follow some issues up with. I’ve made lots of contacts already without spending too much time in the process of doing it.

It is not a venue I had come across before but it is excellent in terms of the facilities that are available. The way we have been looked after since I arrived here has been top rate.

Service Director (ICT), Nottinghamshire County Council

The event was very productive for O2 UK and provided us the opportunity to inform the attendees about our latest strategic proposition, Joined up Business. The event itself was very well run and the quality of attendees was excellent.

Head of Police & Public Sector Acquisition - Telefónica UK Limited

As always friendly, helpful, professional & approachable. Very useful and well organised, overall a great event with interesting speakers and information is relevant and up to date.

Head of Sector Support and Information, Audit Commission

Excellent networking event that added to my current knowledge.

Strategic Director Resources, Powys County Council

The quality of the presentations and the relevance to me has been immense. It has been useful to pick out and look at information from each of them which I have taken note of and will follow up as learning for ourselves for the future.

Assistant Director - Quality and Transformation, Northamptonshire County Council

Very professional & organised staff. It was one of the best organised events I have attended. Business meetings were good.

Managing Director, Twice2much

Very good polite & knowledgeable staff

Forward Plans Group Manager, Aylesbury Vale District Council

A great opportunity to get an overview of the bigger picture.

Assistant Director, Health Reform, North Yorkshire County Council

I just wanted to relay my thanks to all involved in making the event very successful, interesting and useful

Projects & Systems Manager - Aberdeen City Council

At the last one we did in April last year we had three successful follow-ups which resulted in business. I think from this year we are actually ahead of that so far and it is still day one.

Head of Sales, hSo

Well managed and very good event.

Strategic Director/Acting CEO, South Somerset DC

Good balance of speakers and providers.

Head of Category Management - People, Medway Council

The calibre of delegates here is quite impressive indeed. A lot of senior directors, CEOs and precisely the types of people we are looking to have conversations with to make those enterprise-wise investments.

Other conferences I've been to - not just in the UK but across the US and Europe - are much more formulaic, whereas here it is much more about proactively integrating the delegates with the vendors.

Solutions Architect, Rocket Software

I have never been to a conference like this where there are so many senior people in the room at any one time and you have such an opportunity to network, ultimately leading to people that open the door and introduce you to other gatekeepers in the organisation.

The first hour [of speed networking] in particular was full of energy and full of buzz; it was very exciting. But ultimately, those opportunities are when you need to make the most of this opportunity. In the first few seconds, you can create a relationship that is going to last for months.

The way this has been managed is unlike anything I have seen. It has been militant in its precision and everyone has been super friendly. Everyone is helping, aiming to get the best out of the day.

This is something we will definitely be coming back to in the future and we are really grateful for the opportunity to be here.

Senior Client Partner, Net Natives

We find that the Local Gov Strategy Forum is a good place to engage en masse with a whole range of local government officers. You can really engage in a short space of time with a very relevant cross-section of local government leaders. We find that Local Gov Strategy Forum is a very good way to develop new threads and meet new people.

Chief Marketing Officer, Content Guru

Overall was really valuable.

Corporate Director, Social Care & Health, London Borough of Hillingdon

Very well managed and timings were kept to. The business meetings were well managed.

Head of Improvement and Monitoring Unit, City County of Swansea

Excellent, friendly & efficient

Corporate Director, Cardiff Council

Enjoyed the event

Chief Executive, Maldon District Council

Good quality presentations & very customer focussed staff

Group Finance Manager, London Borough of Havering

The thing that I have most valued about the presentations is that they have been really practical and enabled us to have clear messages to take forward about what others have learnt and done.

I enjoyed the speed networking. It's a really good opportunity to get a picture of what lots of different vendors are doing and through those conversations, what other local authorities are doing too.

I think the opportunity to talk with other delegates as well as vendors informally over coffee and dinner has been really effective. It has enabled us to learn and take a lot out of the event.

Acting Head of Transformation, Nottingham City Council

Excellent event - was our first time. Business meetings very good.

Head of Sales & Marketing, Allpay Ltd

It has been a really good and efficient use of my time. It is quite rare that you actually get the chance to think outside of the box and meet other like-minded people and authorities - to actually start having those sorts of conversations that you always want to have but don’t quite manage to squeeze into your day job. It has been brilliant.

Head of Public Services Reform, Cheshire West and Chester Council

Thank you for a brilliant conference - superbly delivered in a great setting

County Clerk and Monitoring Officer, Cardiff Council

Very much enjoyed the conference. I can see that you and the team have got a well-oiled and effective formula for these which has been honed.

Head of Commissioning: Adult Social Care, Torbay Council

Very topical, relevant, useful and reassuring.

Executive Director Environment and Development Directorate, Fife Council

Very efficient, courteous and professional.

Head of Shared Services, London Borough of Havering

It has been an enjoyable event with positive networking and a great venue.

Head of Transformation, Havering Council

The speed networking has been absolutely fantastic in terms of being able to give us a very quick and brief overview of pretty much every local authority.

Consultancy Director, IPL

First Class - inspirational & powerful event

Deputy Chief Executive, Cornwall Council

I think the venue is great; it is just the kind of thing that you want. All the food and drink has been wonderful. It couldn't have been better.

I think that because of the way the forum is structured, that momentum keeps going and it keeps your interest all day long.

Head of Customer Service, Nottingham City Council

The structure and organisation of this forum is always first class. One of my jobs as Chair is to make sure things happen on time but it's the team at ah!media that supports me in doing that. I'm really just the front man. The production behind that and their way of organisation is absolutely first class. I've been a big fan of the whole concept for a number of years. It brings together a unique forum where you can bring together those who are facing challenges and they get to meet first-hand the people with the solutions. It’s a great way of bringing people together in a great setting.

Chief Executive, Scarborough Borough Council

Very good event

Head of Strategy & Programme Management, Norwich City Council

Very well organised & helpful staff, enjoyed balance of real case studies & efficiency ideas

Chief Executive, Norwich City Council

The event was extremely productive for us and gave a real opportunity to discuss current issues and important topics with relevant leaders. One of the best organised events I have attended.

Managing Director, Local Government, Steria

Brilliantly organised and excellent content.

Executive Director, Rugby Borough Council

As a first time sponsor of the Local Government Strategy Forum, we found the event to be a well organised, effective and efficient vehicle through which to meet with senior representatives of our target market. The blend of informative presentations, speed networking, one to one business meetings and the social aspects made for a relaxed environment, which facilitated easy and open discussions with potential clients.

Sales & Marketing Director, Asidua

Very good support throughout. The event was excellent, provided good contacts and was thought provoking. I went away with loads of good ideas, some of which I will definitely progress.

Head of Service for Planning, Environment & Transport Policy, Oxfordshire County Council

This particular event is a useful forum for meeting key people in local authorities that are often very difficult to see in other means because they are very busy people and this is a great opportunity for us to engage with them. The structure of this forum is probably the best I've been to in all of my career. The opportunity to meet numerous people is given through the speed networking and of course the one-to-one meetings that we can book in advance.

Assistant Director, Civica

I have had conversations with CTOs, CIOs, Chief Executives… it allows talking to people that can make the decisions and obviously have the plan of what they want to get out of a vendor as well.

The business meetings have been really valuable, mainly because they have been with the kind of people that I have wanted to speak with. It has been great to get a deeper understanding of what they are looking for and understand a little bit more about their pain points and challenges. And from here, we have actually booked a lot of meetings and follow-up demonstrations, which is fantastic.

Territory Manager, Zendesk

Generally well run, good accommodation, some really good speakers.

Head of Development Management, RB Kensington & Chelsea

Thank you for an excellently run event. Your attention to detail made it a very interesting and hopefully a worthwhile event for us - a really professionally run event.

Chief Executive, Cora systems

Excellent worthwhile event, very well structured with plenty of opportunity to network and exchange ideas

Executive Director - Adult & Community Services, Bournemouth Borough Council