The third annual School Business Management conference took place last Thursday (18 June) at St James's Park and saw 300 delegates from across the North East come together under one roof to discuss the SBM profession and how to be brilliant at it. And based on the feedback we have had to this point, the attendees thought the conference was also brilliant.
When asked how they would rate their overall experience of the day, 93% of the respondents said it was Excellent or Good. The same percentage thought the value for money was Excellent or Good. One of our delegates commented: "It was a very informative day. Good chance to network and meet fellow SBMs in the areas. The speakers were all very informative, and the comedian was a great idea in the morning. Well done."
This year, the event was rebranded as the School Brilliance Management Conference. Step by step, we'll take you through the whole event, with many pictures to help you either form your own opinion or refresh your memory. If you did attend or would like to see more pictures, please visit our SBM Conference photo gallery.
The School Business Management Conference - the biggest event of its kind in the country
We started off on a high note with an introduction from Chris Zarraga, our Director of Operations and Development, followed by Les Marshall's speech, Director of Schools Advisory Service - our main sponsors for the day. In the meantime, our exhibition area was already buzzing with excitement, a new surprise at each and every stand.
The first keynote of the day was Andy Whittaker from The Art of Being Brilliant. Having researched him for this conference, we already knew there would be some giggles during his session, but we did not expect to be left laughing out loud only seconds after he got on stage!
It was a tough act to follow, but we felt the Executive Director of NASBM Stephen Morales brought us back on track. Stephen gave everybody plenty of insight into the SBM profession, with its perks and challenges.
The separate break-out sessions at the SBM Conference were varied and covered a wide range of topics you wanted to learn more about.
Who was your favourite speaker? Which session did you enjoy most? by emailing info@schoolsnortheast.com with your feedback. If you want to read the presentations for each session, you can find the speakers' slides on our website.
We also had General Secretary of NAHT Russell Hobby join us for the final keynote session, discussing the future of education under the new government reforms.
Does it seem like a very intense day? It was definitely information-heavy, but we did leave some time for coffee and tea, some food and a chat with colleagues and exhibitors.
Our main sponsors also provided a Health Check stand for the SBM Conference delegates, which proved to be one of the main attractions of the day.
Not that we didn't have plenty of other exciting goodies waiting in the exhibition hall: all sorts of sweets and cupcakes, plenty of opportunities to win raffle prizes, and George Clooney. Yes, you read that right, our own North East movie star lookalike attended the conference and we spotted some selfies being taken with the doppelgänger.
Here you can find a selection of live tweets from the event - find out what everyone had to say on the day! Keep an eye on our Weekly Updates, clips from the main conference sessions will be available shortly.
We hope everyone enjoyed our third School Business Management Conference, we thought it was brilliant! A huge thank you to all the delegates, the speakers, the exhibitors and last, but definitely not least, to all our sponsors who helped us deliver this event!
