For the third time in its history, Engineers Without Borders UK members from around the UK came together for its annual conference. From a base in the Peak District, the conference was about inspiring, engaging and, importantly, listening.

Who was there?

One hundred and fifty delegates attended the 2008 conference making it our largest EWB-UK event to date. Delegates included representatives from our 18 university societies and professional network; volunteers from our national teams, current Trustees, Alumni and other guests of the charity. 

What was the programme?

The conference aimed to achieve four main objectives for all delegates during the weekend. We wanted them to be able to:

• Engage with the issues involved with development work, the use of appropriate technologies and the challenge of alleviating poverty
• Meet with like-minded, enthusiastic young engineers and share ideas and opportunities
• Receive information about EWB-UK's national programmes, and opportunities to take on important roles within these
• Be listened to – share ideas about how EWB-UK could better reach its target audience, and vote on future trustees: governors who help steer the organisation

The conference began with a welcome speech from Co-CEO, Thalia Konaris, and Keynote Speech from Simon Trace, CEO of appropriate technology NGO Practical Action. The combination of the two talks made for a great start to the weekend, reminding everyone of why we were all there and what our ultimate goals as an organisation really are.

Throughout the rest of the weekend there was the chance to find out more about the EWB-UK Programme and Support areas in a forum intended to encourage discussion and exchange of ideas. Delegates also enjoyed a Shelter based role play delivered by a dedicated team of Arup staff and heard from a number of EWB-UK Volunteers about their activities last year.

Trustee Elections

An important part of every conference is Hustings and Trustee Elections. This year, seven nominees stood for four elected trustee positions. Hustings took the form of video manifestoes from each of the nominees and an opportunity for conference delegates to pose questions to the panel of nominees present. 

Congratulations to Eddie Matos, Hayley Sharp, Steve Jones and Louise Bloom who were all elected to Trustee positions. Congratulations must also go to Steven Hunt and Sacha Grodzinski, our two newly appointed Trustees who were approved by the membership over the weekend.

AGM

The conference also provides the perfect oportunity to hold the EWB-UK AGM. Ruvan Mendis, 2007 /8 Chairman of the Board, highlighted some of the achievements of the organisation over the last year. Once again the organisation has grown hugely over the past year, doubling its fundraising efforts, introducing even more Placement and Bursary opportunities and rising to the challenges of the DFID targets set for Research and Training.

You can find out more about the 2007/8 EWB-UK year in the Annual Review.

What have we heard already?

"Third time and the previous two were great!"

"I think EWB-UK is brilliant and a really inspiring organisation to be a part of. I'm looking forward to the sessions thoughout the course and to meeting lots of great, like-minded and fun people!"

"Interested in meeting people, new ideas, inspiration. Better my understanding of the work EWB does."

"I want to inspire my committee to do more and understand the exciting possiblities that there are with EWB and also network and learn a bunch to help me get into development related work."

"Enabled me to spend time with programmes, the national teams and trustees all in one room. A vital experience."

"Because we were all there together together together. Collective - GOOD! People's links = only way to sustainable development."

"Couldn't stop smiling." [During conference wrap-up]

"[G]reat event to enable, create a platform from where we can engage [with development issues]."

"I thought it was brilliant to do the 'speed dating' and to have the opportunity to choose which programme to get involved with."

We'll put more of the feeback from the conference up on the website soon, but in the mean time if you were at the conference and have any other comments then please get in touch!

Click here to see photos of the conference.