Find Your Local Club
ASC-wording-logo-transparent-retina
  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • Aims & Organisation
    • Meet the National Team
    • Speakers Clubs
    • Membership
    • National Conference
    • FAQs
  • What We Do
    • ASC Development Pathway
    • Become a Better Speaker
    • Become a Better Presenter
    • Become a Better Leader
  • What’s On
    • Club Meetings
    • ASC Events
    • National Conference 2025
  • Resources
    • Development Pathway
      • The Pathway
      • Qualifications & Certificates
    • Speaker & Presenter
      • Speech
      • Evaluation
      • Topics
      • Applied
      • Online
      • Education Sessions
      • World Speech Day
      • Games & Activities
      • General
    • Leadership
      • ASC Roles
      • Judging
      • Leadership Awards
      • Feedback
    • ASC Competitions
      • Roles
      • Rules
      • Marking Sheets
      • Previous Winners
  • The Speaker
  • ASC Governance
    • Our Policies
    • Regions and Areas
    • Clubs – Roles & Meetings
    • The Speakers Guide
    • Forms
    • Marketing Assistance
  • Blog
  • Partners
  • Shop
  • Contact

The ASC National Conference 2022. The highlights!

by Editorial Team 1 Comment

The dust is gradually settling on another fantastic National Conference here at the ASC and conference-goers have returned to the four corners of the UK. But what a conference it was!

ACC National Conference

Lytham St Annes and the Dalmeny Resort Hotel

This year’s conference was organised by Western Region, led by Regional Co Ordinator Anne Bouget. For those who found time to explore the area, what a great choice of venue and location it was. Miles of unspoilt, empty, sandy beaches for our competitors to vent some nervous energy and sunshine to boot! The hotel was slightly quirky but ideal for our needs with large balconies, plenty of meet-up spaces, and a suitably sized conference room.

The SLT and AGM

As conference attendees started to arrive on Friday afternoon, the Senior Leadership Team tucked themselves away in a quiet space for an SLT meeting. Conference is always both a sad and uplifting time as we say goodbye to our outgoing president, welcome in our new president, reflect on our achievements (and failings), and start to regroup and plan for the future.

Catherine Williamson

By 5 pm there was just time for a quick refresh before conference got properly underway with the new format AGM, the election of national officers, and the first of the ASC national competitions, Topics. An ASC AGM is always a lively and educational experience, but the new format meant that it’s a greatly shortened affair. We formerly said goodbye to Catherine Williamson, our outgoing president who has led us with wisdom, energy and compassion through an incredibly difficult time. Catherine has a unique leadership style and her effervescent personality will be greatly missed.

Ramana Sundara

We welcomed in Ramana Sundara as our new president to take us through the next chapter in our ASC story – namely recovery and growth after Covid.

Topics competition

On then to our Topics competition with the subject Modern Times.  In one of our hardest disciplines (impromptu), the standard was incredibly high, and the winners were Nerys Jones (first), Sarah Wadsworth (second), and Stewart Thomson (third). Well done to you all.

Topics Winner Nerys Jones

Evaluation and Speech contests

The sun was shining on Saturday morning for our two remaining competitions. Conference convener Anne Bouget gave a fabulous target speech for our evaluation contestants which gave them a very difficult job. Congratulations to our winners: Rob Parsons (first), Michael Cox (second) and Anna Tewson (third).

Evaluation Winner Rob Parsons

In the afternoon, our speech contest covered a diverse range of subjects including everything from potatoes, failure, and flippers giving our judges a very difficult task. A massive well done to the winners: Jill Finney (first), Rob Parsons (second), and Kathryn Loftus (third). The standard just keeps getting higher!

Speech Winner Jill Finney

Educational sessions and Zoom

Slotted in between the competitions were a series of educational seminars for ASC members which included valuable advice on hosting hybrid meetings, growing a club, and more. No one could accuse Saturday of not being full to bursting with interesting and educational content. Meanwhile, for those that couldn’t attend, the main elements of the conference were streamed live via Zoom and recorded for future reference. Just one of the ways in which we have embraced some of the lessons learnt from Covid and lockdown.

Glad rags and dinner dates

Come Saturday night we were ready to party, and it was the first time I have seen ASC members do the conga! The Bothers of Swing kept us well entertained, the speeches kept us engaged and it was a great chance to catch up with old friends and new.

Reflections

The ASC National Conference is a unique event and once you’ve been once, it becomes strangely addictive!

It’s that annual chance to meet in person those that you know only via social media or those who live at the other end of the county but share common interests. For competitors, it’s about getting out of their comfort zones and challenging themselves, for organisers and the SLT it is about leadership and more. In short, it’s heady a combination of education, experience, learning, inspiration, fun, and serious business. It showcases the very best of our talent and leaves us all with much to reflect on. Roll on next year.

Filed Under: News

Comments

  1. Diana Douglas says

    at

    Well, if that excellent write-up (of, yes, a super event) does not sell it for next year, then nothing will. Full credit to the author. Who was it? PS The Brothers of Swing were no bother at all, they were a truly wonderful duo. Would they travel to Cardiff?

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Find Us On Facebook

The Association of Speakers Clubs

Join Our Mailing list

Keep Up to date

Get regular updates from The Speakers Club
!
!
Subscribe Now
Something went wrong. Please check your entries and try again.

Essential Resources

  • ASC Governance
  • Our Policies
  • National Conference and AGM
  • Regions and Areas
  • Areas
  • Clubs – Roles & Meetings
  • The Speakers Guide
  • Policies & Compliance
  • Forms
  • Marketing Assistance

Quick Contact

Please enter your name.
Please enter a valid email address.
Please type your message.
Send
Message failed. Please try again.

Thanks for your message! We’ll be in touch soon.

Privacy Policy

© 2025 the-asc.org.uk
Maintained & Hosted by Ellosk09.com

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT