Wednesday 12th October Agenda
Focus: Levelling Up
Programme subject to change

Registration opens in the exhibition hall.

Join Solace President and Chief Executive of Manchester City Council, Joanne Roney OBE for a warm welcome to the 2022 Solace Summit: Peak Performance.

Location: Main Stage

Watch this space... more details coming soon. 

Join our expert panel as they discuss the 'Place' perspective. 

Speakers:

Alison Mckenzie-Folan, Chief Executive, Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council & Solace Digital Leadership Lead

Robin Tuddenham, Chief Executive, Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council & Solace Economic Prosperity Lead

Nick Walkley, Principal & UK President, Avison Young

Chair: Andrew Kerr OBE, Chief Executive, City of Edinburgh Council & Solace Scotland Chair

In our second panel session of the day, our experts will be discussing the health perspective of the Levelling Up White Paper.

Speakers:

Dr. Jo Bibby, Director of Health, The Health Foundation

Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive, NHS Confederation

Samantha Jones, Permanent Secretary & Chief Operating Officer of 10 Downing Street

Chair: Paul Najsarek, Solace Policy Lead for Health & Social Care

Keynote

In our second keynote of the day, we'll explore the view of devolution from a serving Mayor's perspective.

Speaker: Andy Street CBE, Mayor of West Midlands Combined Authority

Chair: Ruth Hyde OBE, Chief Executive, Broxtowe Borough Council &  Solace in Business Chair

Take your pick from a variety of breakout sessions presented by our members, business partners and sponsors each designed to help you take a deep dive into topical  issues affecting our sector. 

All breakouts will run between 14:30 - 15:30.

Breakout Option

Increasing demand and decreasing budgets have created the necessity for sustained digital transformation across local government…nothing new here. While there has been lots of success, the baby steps of change delivered thus far haven’t disrupted established ways of working in the same way digital businesses have fundamentally changed service delivery models such as Netflix, Uber and Airbnb have.

In this session, we’ll share our views on what’s required for local government to take mega leaps in service transformation to considerably improve outcomes and fundamentally change the financial model. We’ll also discuss the key to unlocking why the future lies with a slimmer, lower cost core IT resource, driven by constant automation advancements in the cloud and underpinned by data science.

Breakout Option

From commercialism to entrepreneurialism - why now is the time to bring new ideas, investment and energy into solving the biggest public service problems?

Breakout Option

Come along to discover how we can build on what we did in the pandemic to lead us into levelling up using key lessons and case studies.

In this session you will

• Receive a bespoke assessment of readiness for innovation and collaboration in your organisation

• Have a chance to learn from innovation pilots and innovating community collaboration in deprived areas of the North – what this means going forward for local authorities and partners addressing the levelling up agenda

The final keynote session of the day will discuss human capital – the skills, health and experience of the workforce as outlined in the Levelling Up White Paper.

More details coming soon.

Speaker: Emran Mian, Director General, Decentralisation & Growth, Department for Levelling up, Housing & Communities

Location: Main Stage

Today's drinks reception is kindly sponsored by Biffa.

Join us for our signature Summit event, An Evening with Solace

The evening focuses on bringing people together in a relaxed and informal way from across the sector for an evening of good company and great conversations.

We usually have a selection of street food, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and games on offer (think mini-golf, shuffleboard and quizzes) which never fail to bring out everyone's competitive spirit!

An Evening with Solace is kindly sponsored by EY.