EoE Academy Board Blog: David Bacon
Planning the annual conference –
I am David Bacon the current HFMA Eastern Branch Chair and I write this in March 2025 after the Eastern Branch 2025 Conference has taken place. I am reflecting on its success which included an online workshop day with 35 workshops attended by over 700 delegates, followed by two days in person attended by over 200 delegates on each day. The in-person programme, held at Wyboston Lakes featured 12 speaker sessions, our Eastern branch awards ceremony and our annual dinner.
Whilst the conference was a great success, there was a lot of work behind the scenes in the months before to make it happen. It all started back in March 2024, a few days after the 2024 conference had ended. A small group drawn from the HFMA Eastern Branch committee came together and started the planning for 2025.
The first piece of work was to review all the evaluation forms and comments from the 2024 conference and consider them for the 2025 conference, for example:
- were delegates happy with the conference location and facilities,
- was the mix of speakers and structure of the conference over the three days working,
- were there any suggestions for speakers or programme structure for 2025,
- any thoughts or views on the dinner, quiz and karaoke,
- any issues with the on-site accommodation that need to be addressed.
The other early decision to be made was the date and location for the 2025 conference. On top of the feedback information, we considered whether the continued growth in popularity of the conference meant we had to either restrict access to the conference and stay at the Wyboston venue or find a bigger venue that could accommodate the increasing delegate demand.
Kate Tolworthy, HFMA Eastern branch administrator, the rock on which everything the branch does is built, explored a range of alternative conference venues, looking at availability, location and costs. That confirmed that there are not that many venues in the East of England with the required capacity, at a cost that the branch could afford, that would be an exclusive venue, and which would be available in February. The exercise also identified that Wyboston had some flexibility on the level of space and overnight accommodation available. So, after some deliberation, the decision was made to return to Wyboston in 2025, keeping the location under review for future years.
Having secured a venue and some definite dates we now turned our attention to developing the conference programme. After the success of recent years it was quickly agreed that day one of the conference would remain as an on-line workshop day and Lizzie Robson (Finance Academy Manager, East of England Skills Development Network (SDN)) with support from Jane Payling (Regional Finance Academy Director) again took the lead to source speakers and subjects that would work in the 50 minute on line workshop format. They worked on this over the months leading up to the conference with the final programme containing a record 35 workshops (and a volunteer to chair each one) and we were delighted that over 700 individual delegates took part in over 1700 workshop sessions during that day.
We aim to link the theme for our conference with the HFMA national president’s theme. With the conference taking place in February, the East of England conference is the first formal opportunity for the national president to attend a branch event and speak on their chosen theme. Incoming president Lee Outhwaite’s theme was to be ‘Values and value’ we settled on a local conference theme of ‘Building value, Upholding values’
Using the 2024 programme as a template, we had 12 full speaker slots to fill. Some of the speakers were obvious choices (e.g. Zoe Pietrzak, East of England Regional Director of Finance and Lee Outhwaite, HFMA President), meaning that we first needed to settle on their specific time slot and also allow time for the Eastern Branch Awards which were fixed at the end of face-to-face day one. The summer months were then spent discussing potential subject areas and speakers for the remaining slots, looking at availability, feedback from other conferences and networks, any costs involved and the link to our chosen theme. This tricky jigsaw was pulled together by the conference planning committee and by early December the schedule was more or less complete.
With a programme in place, the event could be promoted to delegates and sponsors. Whilst the levy that NHS organisations in the East of England have signed up to provides funds to support the activities of the branch across the year (including the conference and the Rockstars/Superstars conference in September aimed at Band 2-6 and Students) and therefore conference places are offered at no cost to individuals or their employing organisation, the conference is also reliant on securing sponsorship income to ensure that the conference and the branch as a whole remains financially sustainable and viable. We offer a variety of sponsorship packages and from September onwards members of the committee contacted a range of individuals and organisations to seek sponsorship support. It was tougher to secure sponsorship this year; with many sponsors reporting that with their marketing budgets were being squeezed, and with the early signs of the financial pressures across the NHS impacting their assessment of likely returns. Even in late January we were still exploring sponsorship options with some organisations.
For delegates booking opened in the first week of November and by the end of that month circa 90% of the capacity reserved at Wyboston had been taken up. Shortly before Christmas that capacity was exhausted and later bookings were added to a waiting list until the registration closed at the end of January. Keen to support as many staff as possible, the committee agreed to buy additional places (at a cost to the branch) allowing everyone on the waiting list to attend.
In parallel with the conference planning we launched and promoted the Eastern Branch Finance Awards. Judging panels for each award were held during late January after entries had closed, with judges reviewing all entries and undertaking the significant task of scoring each one, all brilliantly overseen and co-ordinated by Sophie Rowe (Senior Programme Manager, One NHS Finance). Once decisions on shortlisting and award winners had been mad,e certificates and congratulatory cards were produced and shortlisted nominees were invited to attend the conference in person.
By the time we get to day one of the conference we hope that all eventualities have been covered and every delegate will have the opportunity to spend three days listening and learning from speakers, networking with colleagues from across the country, engaging with exhibitors and developing their individual relationship with the HFMA and the wider NHS finance family. These relationships are going to become increasingly important as we move through the next few months and years.
The 2025 conference was the last one that I will be chairing, I step down from the role of Branch Chair in July of 2025 and the hot seat on the stage for the two days of the face-to-face conference in February 2026 will be filled by the new chair Tom Burton.
We are fortunate in our patch to benefit from brilliant partnership working between HFMA, SDN and One NHS Finance to deliver a single joint conference and my thanks go to everyone who has contributed. We hope that from a delegate perspective the end result is a slick, smooth-running event, but you can see that it takes time and effort by a dedicated few over an extended period of time to get to that point, and it takes a special team to get us there. If you want to be part of it, I highly recommend becoming more involved in the Branch Committee where you can help plan events such as the conference and access lots of networking opportunities. Contact Kate Tolworthy the branch administrator for more information.
Before I finish, I do need to highlight and say a personal thank you to our three main conference organisers: Kate Tolworthy, Lizzie Robson and Sophie Rowe. The conference would not happen without all your work both at the conference and throughout the year, thank you.
