Saturday 28th November was the first of eight #conkertu events to be held at Conkers Discovery Centre in the heart of the National Forest. These events will cover many aspects of sustainability and sustainable communities ranging from eco homes to gifting and community banking. James (@xxmilkyxx) was still ill so by the time I had sorted him out for the day, swung by to pick up mom (@wrinklydragon) and hit the road, we had not left enough time to catch the “Green Bus” from Tamworth Station to Conkers.

As Saturday was also World Buy Nothing Day, the organisers had pulled out all the stops to help us all make it through the day without the need to spend any money.

The Green Bus Company had agreed to pick up anyone who could meet at Tamworth Railway Station and drive them up to the Conkers Discovery Centre in their WiFi enabled bus. Unfortunately the motorway was full of roadworks, traffic was very slow and most of us missed the departure time and the bus left almost empty. Pity, would have been a good opportunity to do some QIK and Audioboo from a bus!

The morning started with tea and biscuits and half an hour to allow everyone to get to know each other. Managed to get a few shots of the rising sun over the forest and lake, will post them up here as soon as I get a chance.

The Morning session was made up of 4 panellists, each giving a talk and then an open Q&A at the end of the session.

Julian Dobson:
A writer, speaker amd commentator on regeneration and social policy issues, founding editor of NEW START magazine in 1999, the UK’s first weekly publication for community regeneration.

Jonathan Little:
Has experience in economic development, specifically inward investment but now spends his time working in community development, helping communities “bounce back”. Works mainly with ex-mining communities.

Penney Poyzer:
Penny Poyzer is a respected and avid ecologist who has worked for charities and causes, environmentally orientated for the past ten years. Penny started working for eco-charities such as Greenpeace and Friends Of The Earth. Starting her professional life in P.R and Marketing, working for companies that didn’t share her ideology on environmentalism. It was here that made her realise that environmental issues need to be packaged in a way that was interesting for the public.

Jonathan O’Farrell:
Current Chair and web-wrench for Ibstock does Climate Change which is one of these new-fangled ‘Climate Friendly Communities’ to support residents & local businesses in or around, the village of Ibstock, to consider, debate, act and adapt to the effects, positive or negative, of climate change, global warming and decreased availability of fossil fuels.

Audio From the morning session: