The hotel has changed quite a bit over the years but some of their staff were actually in attendance for all 25 events. The hotel knows SHARE and their delegates well and this year pulled out all the stops to make sure the event was one to remember.

SHARE thanks everyone who attended the conference in this celebratory year, the event’s main sponsor ng homes and the exhibitors. Homes NOT JUST houses was attended by 225 visitors, 188 of these being conference delegates from 43 housing associations and co-operatives across Scotland.

A big thank you went to everyone who took part in the charity raffle – Macmillan Cancer Support was the charity chosen by the 2017 conference delegates and £1,335 was raised which was fantastic. Thanks also went to EVH for sponsoring the main raffle prize this year.

The event was full of excellent speakers, workshops, information sessions as well as the opportunity to network with colleagues, have fun and relax. Quite a lot to squeeze in to one weekend.

As well as a variety of speakers delegates also heard from SHARE’s chair Martha Hutcheson on Friday evening. Martha thanked everyone for coming along and supporting SHARE and said: “It has been a tough year for SHARE with staff changes and sickness however the new team are now in place and the organisation is going from strength to strength.”

John Thornburn, chair of ng homes, the main conference sponsors, spoke to delegates at the drinks reception on Saturday and recognised the hard work put in to deliver such a great event. ng homes are avid supporters of SHARE and the contribution they make to the sector.

Karyn McCluskey, chief executive at Community Justice Scotland, was the keynote speaker on Saturday morning. Karen was inspirational and talked about the need for change to help support our communities and stressed that housing associations and co-operatives are a big part of this.

Here is some of what the delegates said about the event.

100% of respondents rated the conference good to great. “Very good and educative programme – keep it up.”

100% of respondents would recommend the event to others. “Great conference as always. Excellent opportunity for interaction with other RSL’s. Good quality info & relaxing evenings.”

96% of respondents liked the refreshed delivery of the Committee matters session. ”Arrangements for Committee matters better – resulting in greater participation and discussion”

Well done to the team at Milnbank for winning the selfie competition and you can see some of the photos on our Facebook page @sharehousingtraining and congratulations to Catherine Docherty from New Gorbals Housing Association who was the £100 prize draw winner.

Verbal feedback and the completed evaluations provide a good picture of delegate’s views of conference each year and SHARE takes everything on board. However, these cover around half of those who attended and SHARE really wants to hear more views.

If you would like SHARE to come out to speak to your Committee/Board about the event or if you would be interested in joining a small group to help us plan the 2019 event please get in touch with pauline@share.org.uk before the end of May. You can also submit your views by email to Pauline.

Please click HERE for conference photographs.