The 1st Reaching Out conference was a great day for me. I really felt the atmosphere was excellent – people were both friendly and curious so there was good and varied discussion but to the best of my knowledge no one was angry at what other people were saying. The speakers were very good and well balanced across topics. A point worth noting is that the presentations were mostly by men and I suggest this is more balanced for future conferences. That said, the quality was good and Ben’s keynote was out of the ordinary and quite thought provoking, as a keynote should be.

I was quite pleased with my own session. I fielded some very hard questions from Ben that in fact helped me dig deeper into the framework and its purpose. The attendance at my session was good and varied and everyone got engaged in the discussions.

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There was quite a focus on youth voice on the day which I felt was a good thing. What  became clear was that there were very different understandings of ‘fair’ methodology depending on which context people were in. It was interesting that the question was asked whether inclusion and youth voice were the same thing. Although the circles overlap I personally don’t believe they are the same and hope we can look at both similarities and differences in the future.

There were people at the conference both in their teens and in their sixties, and presumably all points in between. In terms of being about the Northwest it would have been good to have had a more culturally diverse group of people and that could have been reflected in the speakers. Very good to have the young people performing at the end. It made it end with a lovely atmosphere. Well done to all I would say.