Bridget’s Blog: 9 Years of Music Mark Conferences
4th August 2025
It only feels like a few years ago that I was frantically programming my first Music Mark Annual Conference as a newly appointed CEO, so to realise that we’re heading towards my 9th conference this November seems hard to believe. It’s been quite a rollercoaster – of my own design in some respects – but we’ve certainly had a variety of conferences!
My first, in 2017, was the second of three years in Warwickshire at the Chesford Grange Hotel. I was honoured that our then Patron Charles Hazelwood agreed to be one of our keynote speakers, and we also welcomed John Kelly to speak and perform. We got everyone doing some body percussion with Ollie Tunmer and welcomed Berkshire Youth Choir to sing to us on the Saturday morning. To wrap up the two days, and as the conference coincided with the completion of my first 100 days as CEO, I took the opportunity to outline my vision for the future.
As I outlined that vision, I was keen not to make significant changes in my first year, but running the conference on a Saturday didn’t seem to work with many delegates having to leave to get back to work at music centres or for family commitments. So, in 2018 we moved the conference to Thursday and Friday. We returned to the same venue, but it felt different, and the theme of Youth Voice gave us an opportunity to provide a platform for young people to challenge and inspire us. Our youth-led discussion session with representatives from Croydon and Lancashire on the Thursday afternoon was really inspiring, as was the keynote from our now Champion Faz Shah. We even handed over our social media accounts to some young people from Voice Magazine.
After three years in the West Midlands, I felt it would be good to go on tour with the conference, and we headed to Sheffield and the very grand Cutlers Hall. It was another great two days of presentations, discussions and half–drunk cups of tea! A particularly memorable moment was the fanfare prepared by Sheffield Music Service as we went into dinner – a suggestion of a simple short fanfare using a balcony box above the hall turned into a 15–minute piece involving professional musicians, a youth band and primary school students playing P-buzzes. As with every conference, we had a photographer who helped us to remember the two days. These pictures have provided us with photos we have used again and again in our communications and on socials – although the photo of a tray of doughnuts wasn’t one we easily found a use for!
I stood on the stage at the end of the 2019 conference with Peter Chivers from Brighton and Hove to invite everyone to join us on the South Coast in 2020 and started to plan the conference with a theme of ‘music’. As the year progressed it became obvious that an in-person conference was just not going to happen. We were not defeated though; the show would ‘play on’ (the title of that year’s conference!) and we ran our first online conference from a ‘studio’ built for the day in Northamptonshire. There were so many highlights from that day, but my personal highlight was the opening video of creating the studio, produced by our tech team from Titan – it certainly set the scene for what proved to be a great day.
The pandemic didn’t go away quickly, and I reflect now that we were really lucky to have been able to run our 2021 conference in person. We decided to go for a hybrid version and so again much of the content from the main space is still available to watch, but what perhaps doesn’t come through on video is the relief and excitement in the room for being back together in person!
Thinking about what happened next reminds me of how we’ve tried many different things with our annual conference. 2022 was the year I really tested the still relatively small staff team to the limit! Our theme was Equity Diversity and Inclusion – turning Talk into Action. Linking with our new campaign of the same name, I was keen to ensure that as many people working in music education as possible could access our conference. So we went on tour! The conference had a day in London, Derby and Bristol, an online live broadcast day from a studio in Birmingham, and the two–day conference which took place in Newcastle. With some hybrid elements and the online day, many useful resources from that conference are still available to investigate.
Winners of the 2023 Music Mark Awards
2023 and 2024 went back to being fully in person. First, we came almost to my doorstep with our visit to Southampton, exploring dynamism in our 10th birthday year. Then last year we headed north again to Nottingham for a conference focused on sustainability in music education. Both these last two years we’ve had not only a conference full of great sessions, keynotes and even more half-drunk cups of tea, but also the Music Mark Awards. Launched as a way to celebrate the sector in our 10th year, these awards have highlighted so many great programmes and people that make music education so rich and exciting!
Last year in Nottingham went so well – with a venue which appears to have been the most popular with delegates, speakers and exhibitors of the past 10 years – that we’re back there in 2025. We’ve given you a sneak peek at what to expect and can’t wait to tell you more, including sharing the full programme in September. Have you booked to join us yet? I really hope so, and if you need some reminders of why the conference is THE hot ticket in music education every year, why not also take a trip through the archive and perhaps drink a full cup of tea as you watch some videos or explore resources from one of them?
