This is a particularly busy time of year for the events team as we prepare for our flagship event, the National Training Conference. For the 10th year, we return to the beautiful town of Stratford-upon-Avon. The Crowne Plaza continues to meet our needs perfectly, with space for up to six or seven syndicate sessions at once and a main ballroom for our wonderful Gala Dinner and Awards evening, attended by more than 300 people.

We continue to bring in fresh speakers and ideas. This year, the 30th IoL Conference will use the Whova conference app to improve the delegate experience. We hope it will be widely used and help reduce printing, also supporting our efforts to lower our carbon footprint.

As we finalise the programme, bookings are already well ahead of 2025, so if you have not yet secured your place, please do not delay!

In June 2026, we also trialled a new All Regions Regional Meeting, bringing all regions together online for one shared programme. This reduced the workload for regional volunteers, replaced one of their regular meetings, and allowed speakers to deliver their sessions just once. The event was a great success, with more than 250 attendees and 99% giving very positive feedback. We plan to repeat this format in July 2027.

We are well underway already planning next year’s events and would welcome suggestions for new face-to-face venues. In March the Taxi Conference took place at the Baroque-style Town Hall in Walsall, and in June 2026 our Summer Training Conference was held at Cheltenham Town Hall, a beautiful Grade II listed building. If you know of a suitable space, please do get in touch.

We are always trying to ensure there are some new courses available. This year we have delivered half-day online Primate Update training, as well as a 2-day face-to-face event at the world-renowned Monkey World in Dorset, co-delivered by one of the world’s leading primate experts, Dr Alison Cronin. Other new courses included Care of Zoo and Exotic Animals as well as PACE beginner and refresher courses, a must for all enforcement officers.

Coming up soon on 23rd September is the inaugural Animal Licensing Conference, which we are very excited about, as there is lots to discuss.

Please let us know if there is a training course you need that we do not currently offer. We have recently been running free webinars for IoL members on a range of topics. These short, focused sessions work well for niche subjects, and I would be delighted to receive any suggestions.

I look forward to seeing you at an event soon.