RCSLT Hub Summit, Honours and Giving Voice Awards!

On Thursday I attended the RCSLT Hub Summit in Birmingham. I travelled down by train on Wednesday afternoon and checked into the Holiday Inn, where the event was held. After settling into my room I went to the hotel bar to have some food before a quiet night watching TV looking forward to the day ahead!

My room for the night!

After breakfast I checked out of my room and then headed to register at the event. I saw a couple of Giving Voice Innovation Group members and enjoyed catching up with them before the event started.

The day started with the AGM, led by chair of RCSLT Bryony Simpson. There were a number of presentations throughout the day as well as group discussions to talk about outcomes and regional hubs. It was a pleasure talking to so many enthusiastic speech and language therapists and really interesting listening to all the speakers. (Presentations will be online in the next two weeks with author’s permission).

I visited the Giving Voice stand and looked at the photos that were short listed for the Giving Voice calendar. Looking forward to seeing which ones won when RCSLT announce it next month :)

Giving Voice stand

At the end of the day was the RCSLT Honours Ceremony with the Giving Voice Awards 2013. This was a truly inspirational hour, making me feel proud to be a speech and language therapist. I was delighted to hear that Dr Helen Stringer was awarded an RCSLT Honours. She is a lecturer at Newcastle University (where I studied) and is inspirational! Well done to everyone who was awarded RCSLT Honours 2013, they were all truly deserving recipients!

Dr Helen Stringer receiving her Honours

There were four Giving Voice awards presented after the honours awards. These were all for SLTs (and students) who have had Innovative ideas in contributing to the campaign. I enjoyed talking to the award winners and hearing about their campaigning. One of the winners is now living in the North East and we are hoping we might be able to ‘Give Voice’ together in the near future!

Some of the award recipients!

After the awards, members of the Giving Voice Innovation group met for an informal meeting. It was nice to catch up with everyone and to discuss future plans  :) I am looking forward to travelling to London next month for some additional training and also for our next meeting.

Some of the Giving Voice Innovation Group

I really enjoyed my time in Birmingham and I am looking forward to attending the inaugural Hub meeting in the North East on Monday.

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives