He promised a “swift and pragmatic” review involving dialogue with external individuals and organisations to produce the “cohesive and effective strategy for skills and leadership.”

Dame Mary Marsh, Director of the Clore Social Leadership Programme, said the review would take six months: “We are concerned about the critical gaps in our capacity, and we will be looking for a range of potential solutions. We want to open the discussion as widely as possible, both online and face to face.” 

There were15 executive learning sessions designed grouped under four core themes: leadership skills, skills for strategy and innovation, finances and skills and skills for organisational development. You can read more and download the presentations.

The conference was rounded up in a very entertaining session with Lord Victor Adebowale CBE, Chief Executive of Turning Point and a Commissioner for the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, who called upon charities to shake off their lack of confidence in their existing skills and leadership and to understand the power of collaboration. While Lorraine Heggessey, Executive Chair of independent production group Boom Pictures, and former BBC1 Controller and Chief Executive Officer of talkbackThames, said that people were not resources but talent - that needed nurturing.

Summing up our CEO Keith Mogford: “We cannot afford to become complacent and not continue to pay attention to investing in our skills; we may have the right skills for today, but we need to ensure we also have the right ones for the years ahead.”

We had over 400 tweets on the day on #charityskillsconference - you can see tweets and pictures on Storify.

Our People Our Skills Our Future was sponsored by Unity Trust Bank. The leadership skills strand of the conference was sponsored by Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness, and the Charity Learning Consortium sponsored the organisational development strand. Thank you!