SPORTA Chairman, Craig McAteer casts his mind back to Gateshead, and preparations for the challenges ahead:
Gateshead was a dreary and wet place when I arrived with my colleague, with expectations of a thought provoking conference. Against a background of uncertain political leadership, public service cuts and threats to the delivery of cultural services it left me with a realism of how important sharing knowledge and the timing of this conference was.
The first day was a tour of several cultural venues in Gateshead, including the famous athletic stadium. It was a pleasure to meet staff, customers and visit the new academy with interesting talks about the local community and the interventions required to access services.
The conference for me though came alive with a thought provoking talk from Professor Patrick McGuinness, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, Oxford University. He entertained us with a rich academic insight into culture. As always the political thoughts from the cultural minister and Baroness Maddock from the Liberal Democrats helped shaped future direction about cultural services from their parties.
Conference is also about networking opportunities and I attended the CLOA fringe meeting with fellow delegates, one of the main topics being how we can all join up cultural services provision and examine different delivery mechanisms within a fluid environment.
If we ever felt down on day two, just listening to Chris Holmes and his experience of the Paralympics was great inspiration – and one of the best sessions from conference for me.
So, overall an upbeat and though provoking conference with stimulating workshops. We face many challenges over the next few years but there is no doubt the LGA / CLOA conference has helped us to prepare for them.
Tags: CLOA, Paralympics, participation, sport, training, young people
