We promised our stakeholders and supporters at the last annual general meeting of the Robert Owen Academy Trust that we would hold an annual lecture to promote the ideals that the Academy stood for. The pandemic delayed matters somewhat and then on Saturday morning 12th June 2021 we launched as a virtual event with three high quality speakers.
The theme was Post pandemic community – regeneration through co-operative multi agency partnerships.
Seventy one delegates had signed up from the four corners of the globe . In the final event the challenge of technology reduced our numbers somewhat but nothing diminished the quality of the presentations and the level of subsequent discussion.
Geoff Hughes proved to be an excellent chair and the three presentations from Simel Esim of the International Labor Orgsnisation, Philip Beardmore from Coops West Midlands and James Alcock of the Plunkett Foundation blended their deliveries together into a seamless co-operative challenge to the issues facing communities worldwide . We have included the link to a recording of the meeting at the bottom of this article on our Marches Hive website .
Since the event the email traffic has been flowing from around the world with fellow co-operators eager to get started and to develop Grange Court in Leominster as a hub for National and international development. Co-operative activity is an unique form of economic behaviour and the discussions made it clear that co-operation works best when applied in its pure form.
Our vision we take from this first lecture is of many autonomous cells linked to the Grange Court hub. The Co-operative Values and Principles would require nothing less.
The first Annual Lecture lasted two and a half hours and by general agreement had the Wow factor . Many thanks to all if the participants for making it such a success.
We will continue to stay in touch and build on the thoughts and ideas discussed.
The event can be viewed at: https://zoom.us/rec/share/RvQ-ElHjjkl8QSDNJHZ26XOZWdNqhOvro9t7HWxRrVZbo6Uy2ISKggZU6NGjU3-B.et0Xl5Q0ujOOZbdc?startTime=1623493396000