• CTA’s Northern Ireland Conference 2018

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    • CTA’s Northern Ireland Conference 2018
    • by Tim Cairns
      Director for Northern Ireland

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    We’re pleased to announce that this year we’re going to be holding a conference in Belfast for our members and other organisations that provide accessible and inclusive transport in Northern Ireland.

    This year’s Northern Ireland Conference is taking place on 08 November 2018, from 10:00 – 15:30 at KPMG, The Soloist Building, 1 Lanyon Place, Belfast, BT1 3LP.

    As with this year’s CTA Roadshow events in England, we’re pleased that this event is being run in association with KPMG and we’re very grateful for their continued support.

    The event is free of charge and open both to CTA members and other not-for-profit organisations who operate transport in Northern Ireland, such as schools and churches.

    Click here to book your place


    What will we be talking about?

    During the event, we’ll have a number of presentations and workshops both from CTA staff and from external speakers. We’ll have two group sessions that will be for everyone, as well as two sets of breakout sessions that you can choose between. These sessions are:

    Morning Breakout Session:

    In the morning we will have two sessions. If you are a community transport provider that is grant funded by the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) you’ll attend ‘Session 1’ and if you’re not directly funded by the DfI you can attend ‘Session 2’.

    • Session 1: Session for Grant Funded Operators

    This session is aimed towards grant funded community transport operators in Northern Ireland which will give them the opportunity to speak with  Katrina Godfrey, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Infrastructure.

    • Session 2: Good to Go: Operating Your Minibus

    This session is aimed at small organisations such as schools, churches, sports clubs and community organisations that own and operate a minibus. We’ll look at current legislation around driver licencing and permits, as well as how to best operate your minibus safely and legally in a school/small organisation setting.


    Afternoon Breakout Session:

    Participants can choose to attend one of the following two breakout sessions, which will be running concurrently:

    • Demonstrating your impact

    In today’s climate, it’s especially important to be able to effectively make the case for community transport. Drawing on examples from across the sector, this session looks at ways in which our members can measure their impact and the benefits that can bring. A frequent adage when discussing measuring impact is ‘no stories without numbers and no numbers without stories’ so this session will look at ways in which our members can demonstrate both their social and their economic impact.

    • Good to Go – Maintaining Your Vehicle

    This session will provide participants with easy to understand training on the different elements of vehicle maintenance. Real life examples of good practice will be shared and participants will leave the session with the knowledge and tools required to always get it right when maintaining their vehicle. Divided up into four manageable areas covering the different elements of vehicle maintenance, each area will include legal and best practice tips on how to implement excellent vehicle maintenance procedures.


    Group Sessions:

    These sessions will run in the afternoon and will be for all participants:

    Engaging politicians without an Executive

    This session will help give you the tools to engage with your local councillors, MLAs, MPs and civil servants, especially in the current political climate without a Northern Ireland Executive. The session will be led by Richard Bullick from MCE Public Relations, a former Special Adviser to the First Minister.

    Panel discussion and participant questions

    This session is a chance for participants to ask questions to a panel of experts regarding issues discussed during the day as well as any other topics you would like to raise. The panel will include:

    • Bill Freeman, Community Transport Association
    • Nuala O’Neill, Governing Bodies Association
    • Chris McLean, Department for Infrastructure
    • Sandra Adair, Volunteer now
    • Richard Bullick, MCE Public Relations

    Book your place and choose your sessions

    To book your place go to www.ctauk.org/events. After you’ve booked, we’ll send you a link where you can choose the breakout sessions you want to take part in. If you have any questions in the meantime please email bookings@ctauk.org


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    1 Comment

    • Cedric Armsirong

      21:50 19th October 2018

      i hope to attend on 8th November as a member C T A

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