Conference this year will be held at Gladstone’s Library, St. Deiniol’s in Hawarden near Wrexham. It’s a beautiful venue which we have used before – http://www.st-deiniols.com/
Conference will take place on the weekend 25-27th May.
We have a host of great speakers lined up, including:
* Andy Atkins – Friends of the Earth’s Executive Director *Gareth Clubb – Friends of the Earth Cymru Director *John Griffiths AM – Welsh Government Minister for the Environment and Sustainability *Dr Carly McLachlan – Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research *John Vidal – Environment Editor, The Guardian *Craig Bennett – Friends of the Earth Director of Policy and Campaigns *Danny Chivers – Eco performance poet and climate change activist *Llyr Huws Gruffydd AM – Plaid Cymru, Environment, Housing & Regeneration
We will be looking ahead to some exciting new campaigns that FoE will be running as well as finding some time just to chill out and relax and socialise. We have changed things slightly this year with the Friday evening being more informal, a chance to talk to Andy Atkins and Gareth Clubb and we have brought forward the Mike Jacob Awards to the Friday evening as well.
On the Sunday we have organised 2 practical workshops following on from feedback we have had at previous conferences.
Campaign Surgeries – We are running a special campaign surgery session where you can spend some time withmembers of staff discussing specific campaign issues/planning questions etc.
Open Space session – would you like to host a discussion? We are also running an Open Space type session where we are hoping to have a few tables where discussions are happening around certain issues where people can takepart if they want to or spend some time going between the various discussion groups. We would like to throw the floor open to you all to suggest topics for discussion. It could be specific campaign related or skill sharing, anything relevant really that you would like to talk about. You are then welcome to host this discussionduring this session. If you would like to suggest a topic and host the discussion then do let the FoE Cymru office know. We are looking for 5 or 6 topics for discussion.
Mike Jacob Award:
As you are probably aware by now, we run an annual award to recognise bothindividual contributions to Friends of the Earth local groups in Wales and also successful Friends of the Earth local group campaigns, events and actions in Wales.
* Is there a particular local group campaign in Wales that has impressed youover the last year? * Is there someone in your local group who you think deserves recognition? * Is there a particular piece of local group or individual work or action (not necessarily a campaign) that you think should be nominated?
Entertainment:
We have managed to get Danny Chivers (eco poet, author and activist) to come along to conference. Danny was one of six people due to be tried in January 2011 forplanning to invade Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power station. That case collapsed after revelations about undercover police officer Mark Kennedy. Danny will be telling us about his experiences as well as doing some of his eco-slam poetry.
He has also recently written a book (The No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change) http://www.newint.org/books/no-nonsense-guides/climate-change-2011/
Conference details:
Date:Friday 25th – Sunday 27th May
Venue:St Deiniol’sGladstone’s Library, Church Lane, Hawarden, Flintshire CH5 3DF http://www.st-deiniols.com/