2nd Annual Transition Network Conference

The Royal Agricultural College will be hosting the event.

The conference will run from lunchtime on Friday 11-April through to lunchtime on Sunday 13-April. This will give people enough time to travel to the conference on the Friday, and travel back home on the Sunday.


Write up of Conference proceedings

Go here for the session presentations and write ups. These will be appearing over the next couple of weeks or so as they are sent in by the participants. If you have one to send in, please email it to conference[AT]transitionnetwork[DOT]org.


Purpose of Conference

The conference is designed for people involved in a transition initiative in their locale or who are "mulling over" whether to start one up. We will be having workshops, Open Spaces, World Cafes, presentations, discussions, dancing and maybe even a soccer match.

The aim is to help people learn how to broaden, deepen and accelerate their initiative, and connect with people to share ideas, inspiration and experiences.


Conference programme

The conference will be a mix of workshops and open space with the occasional presentation, yoga class and soccer match.

There will be plenty of opportunity for networking and chilling out.

Here's a cut down version of the conference programme with all the relevant details.


Booking a place

The e-booking forms will be sent via email to everyone on our database on 12-Mar-08, so if you haven't received your e-booking form by then, it means you're not on our database.

In that case, fire off an email to us with your full name and location and we'll send you the e-booking form.


Costs and accommodation options

In the spirit of financial transparency, I'm letting you know that we have uplifted the prices by around 9% to subsidise the accommodation costs of the organisers (100%) and the presenters (25%). Everything has been calculated at cost, so we won't be buying our beer and cigarettes with your money!

Total prices
All these options are in the booking email, going out 11-March-08
There are 3 options, with varying prices:
  • stay onsite in a single room: £195 (includes conference and full board)
  • stay onsite in a double room: £175 (includes conference and full board)
  • stay offsite (as a day-delegate): £90
    • includes conference and morning coffee/biscuits, lunch, afternoon tea/biscuits
    • off-siters can opt for an evening meal for Friday and Saturday night at £12 per night (food looks pretty good here, too)
    • accommodation options are 2 campsites and yurt "encampment" noted below. You'll need to liaise directly with the sites for your accommodation if you're off-site.
International surcharge
  • our bank is charging us an extra £6 for international transfers, so if you're paying that way, you'll need to add that to the overall payment.
Offsite accommodation
Mayfield campsite
Just under 4 miles away is the 4 star Mayfield campsite with good facilities and room for about 40 tents. Googlemap directions are here.
  • camping prices: £11 per night for tent and two people
The Organic Farm Shop
This wonderful-looking place is 4 easily cyclable miles from the college. It has a campsite, yurts, cottages, glades, composting loos - see here for details.
  • yurt camp can take 18 and it's a block booking at £27 total per person for Fri-Sat-Sun nights
  • single yurt (in peaceful glade) is £15 per night and can take 5 people
  • campsite is £4 per person per night
Bursaries - now fully allocated
If you can't afford to come to the conference and desperately need to be there, our preference would be:
  1. get partial funding from your own community and match it yourself
  2. get full funding from your own community
  3. get partial funding from your own community and we'll match it
  4. get a full bursary from us
Be aware that the number of bursaries to help impoverished transitioners attend the conference is very limited. Please email me to apply.
To be fair to everyone, we'll set a cut-off date of 31-March-08, at which point we'll look at all the applications and select.


How to get here

Here's a map and directions from the college website.

The nearest train station, Kemble, is 3 miles away. It costs about £8 in a taxi to get to the college.

For cyclists, we recommend taking a back route from the train station to the college. It'll add a little bit to your journey - a peaceful jaunt along country lanes rather than the "speedway". You have two options:

  • 4 miles on country lanes, 0.5 miles on main road here
  • 5 miles on country lanes, 0.5 miles on slowish main road here


Press protocol

Members of the press can participate in, or observe, all and any aspect of the conference, as long as they sign up (by email or on a sheet at the conference) to the following protocol:

  • All press must register their intention to attend the conference with either:
    • Ben Brangwyn (benbrangwyn[AT]transitionnetwork[DOT]org, 07904 122636)
    • Jo Coish (jocoish[AT]transitionnetwork[DOT]org)
  • All press must make themselves known to a Transition Network person on arrival
  • Transition Network will provide press with an identifiable badge with name and publication
  • Press must wear the badge at all times
  • Any press person engaging a conference participant in conversation must explicitly convey that the conversation is on the record or off the record
  • All participants will be told that if they feel unconfortable talking to the press that it is their responsibility to express that (politely) before the conversations start
  • Dress code for conference - if you're in a suit, you'll be the only one :¬)


Who can come?

We will be reserving approximately:

  • 50% of the places for people from existing official transition initiatives
  • 40% for people from communities that are "mulling it over"
  • 5% for journalists
  • 5% for vagrants and hangers-on