With so many events jostling for attention, youth workers are faced with two questions: how to decide which conferences are worth their time and money, and how to persuade the budget holder to authorise attendance.
At its best, a conference can be a place to learn new skills, fill in knowledge gaps, meet people and catch up with contacts. Even more importantly, attending a conference can have an impact on the quality of work delivered to young people, so they will ultimately benefit from the money spent.
Know your interests
The first step in choosing the right conference is to decide what you need from an event. At Nacro's three-day conference on youth justice, for example, delegates have been most interested in seminars that are more practice-based, according to Chris Stanley, head of youth crime at the charity. "They've felt deskilled recently," he suggests.
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