HPMA Conference 2023 Highlights #Passion4People

Last month we hosted our annual Conference & Awards in Leeds, bringing together People Professionals from across the U.K. to celebrate our profession and learn from one another.

We received a wealth of positive feedback from the conference as audience members connected on social media with our #Passion4People hashtag. Our team echoed this positivity as we were so happy to bring everyone together for a wonderful 2 days.

To capture the magic, we asked members of the HPMA team to share their conference highlights. Here is what they said:

Team HPMA conference highlights:

“Our highlights are:

• The buzz in the room and the enthusiasm of colleagues who attended the conference to network and take away as much as they could.
• The clear themes that emerged over the two days of compassion in leadership but also to ourselves, collaboration being the key to innovation and change, the breadth of challenge ahead of us as a profession and the need to shape our professional development around those challenges.
• The amazing engagement with the Awards and recognition of the achievement of all our finalists.
• Opportunity to meet so many lovely people who approached me and fed back on what a positive time they had had.
• David and Carrie Grant which included a fantastic singing lesson for all delegates! Also David Grant’s chant – that the NHS needs us.
• The fact that all of us are only human and are one family together.”

– Sarah Morley & Janet Wilkinson, HPMA Co-Presidents

 

“The passion and energy of everyone who was there, the delight of seeing colleagues face to face, and reconnecting with familiar faces whilst making new connections. We are making a difference and we are enough, we just need to fully embrace our rightful place at centre stage and use our voice.”

– Nicky Ingham, HPMA CEO

 

“Reconnecting with members, meeting lots of new ones and building connections with our fantastic commercial supporters/members! Oh and Jess Robinson hosting our awards! Just brilliant.”

– Jo Owens, HPMA Membership and Engagement Manager

 

“Professional relationships (new and renewed relationships with colleagues), celebrating the great work we do in our profession (especially with the awards), and the privilege of listening and learning from others. I particularly enjoyed Tracy Myhill’s session too because of the openness, honesty, and generosity in her reflections.”

– Tracy Hill, Programme Development Director

 

“The conference was called Passion for People- it equally attracted those people who were passionate about other people, their colleagues, their team, their workforce, and on the whole ‘the people profession.’

Speakers shared a common theme and goal, which was to ensure we bring value to all our people and service users/patients by giving them the people profession the right tools to be better and do better. It was about self-reflection, being a change enabler, being open minded and compassionate, honest leadership, inclusivity, moving with the times eg digital/ AI (artificial intelligence), better service models, taking ownership, and finally challenging status quo or speaking up.

As I spoke to our exhibitors, it was apparent that independent services have also changed their models to become more person-centric, and tailored to needs/ environment – making sure the end user is ‘happy’ and the offered solution is ‘fit-for-purpose’. Exhibitors spoke with passion about their services with an end goal to ensure our people profession is happy. I felt proud to know and hear of the hard work that goes into their innovation – it’s not always about the money.

Also there were lots of positive testimonials about the event – a testament to all those sponsors, supporters, organisers and of course its success couldn’t have been possible without our people profession. Together we made it happen.

It’s good to be able to give back to our people – I hope the event did that as they walked out with smiles leaving the two day event :)”

– Zara Seehra, HPMA Strategic People Project Officer

 

“This was my first time attending the conference & awards and it was very much about observing how the whole process works. I see the preparation for months in advance on the finance side as I liaise with the organizers Chamberlain Dunn but seeing it actually taking place was very impressive.

It was great finally meeting people I have corresponded with over my four years with HPMA and finally putting faces to names, which was lovely.

I got a strong feeling from the delegates, sponsors & exhibitors that they want to be part of the HPMA family and see the charity improving & developing.”

– Petra Johnson, HPMA Accounts

 

“For me, the outpouring of love for the conference, awards, HPMA, and the people profession as a whole on the #Passion4People hashtag during the conference was heartwarming to see. Audience members were celebrating the speakers, sessions, and opportunity to connect with one another in person. For me, that renewed connection is what these conferences are all about so seeing audiences take these relationships move into a digital space so that they can continue after the 2 days is really special.”

– Jessica Hearne, Hearne Creative Ltd (HPMA Social Media)

 

“For me, the highlight was meeting people I had only interacted with on email or over the phone, and the awards dinner which was really well done.”

– Charlotte Craig, HPMA Executive Administrator

 

“As always our team felt so privileged to organise the conference and awards, it really is the highlight of our calendar, seeing everyone come together to share and celebrate. This year I was really hoping that our members would embrace Carrie and David’s session and of course they didn’t disappoint! It was a real thrill to see all of our audience on their feet singing in harmony, and taking on board the importance messages that came through, bringing us back to what it’s all about, the profession developing and working together to ultimately improve patient care.”

– Joy Shepherd, Chamberlainn Dunn (HPMA Event Organiser)

 

Here is our full highlight summary of the 2 days:

The conference was hosted at the Royal Armouries Museum, an iconic museum setting that gave the opportunity to get fresh Leeds air throughout the day as well as getting some exercise.

Throughout the conference we had the incredibly talented Anna from New Possibilities creating colourful and captivating images to a permanent record of our two days.

Day 1 began with our very good HPMA friend, Julie Rogers from Health Education and Improvement Wales, as our expert Chair. It was our first conference with Co-Presidents Sarah and Janet at the helm with over 400 people in the room!

Tanya Carter was inspirational as she generously shared her stories and experience during her “Passion For People” talk. We then enjoyed some virtual words from Navina Evans who wasn’t able to join us in person but impressed upon us the importance of taking the time to develop ourselves.

We then enjoyed lots of useful Stream Breakout Sessions thanks to our stream sponsors: ibex gale, KPMG, Mills & Reeve, and Patchwork. You can read more about the stream sessions in the 2023 Conference Programme. We were so excited to see audience members really embracing the Conference App sponsored by Patchwork too as well as the power banks sponsored by Allocate / RLDatix.

We enjoyed a packed exhibition hall with lots to explore and learn thanks to our range of exhibitors. You can read more about each of them here.

To kick off the afternoon discussions, Peter Cheese gave us his talk “The Future of Work and the People Profession – The Opportunities Ahead” and as always got us thinking about what the future holds. This was followed by a thought-provoking panel on technology – “Embracing Technology, Embracing Change” – with Claire Gore, Liz Mear, Ray Pendleton, and Hannah Foster.

Day 1 of the conference closed with some great Tai-Chi with Helen Ives from NHS Professionals, our event partner, as well as a focused look at flexible working during our “The Big Reset – How Flexibility Will Support the Ever-Evolving Healthcare Workforce in a Post-Covid World” event partner session.

We then put our glad rags on ready to celebrate together the amazing achievements across our profession at the HPMA 2023 Awards! Jess Robinson, our awards host, wowed us with her incredible singing voice and rapid-fire impressions to an audience of over 600 guests. We had such an impressive range of finalists and winners working at the top of their game. You can find a summary of all the award winners here.

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To begin day 2 of the conference we welcomed to her first conference as Chair, hopefully the first of many, Fiona Hogg, Scottish Government, and her enthusiasm was catching.

Our dream team consisting of Nicky Ingham, Tracy Hill, and Rachael Tyler then showcased what HPMA have been working on to build our profession in our talk “HPMA: with you, for you.” This was followed by Tanya-Marie Robinson and Lynne Shaw shining a spotlight on the importance of professional development in their talk “Development is Part of Our DNA: The NHS People Profession Map.”

Carrie and David Grant took us out of comfort zone, encouraging audience members to sing together in harmony to symbolise working together during their talk “Leading: Your Passion for People.” They also offered some powerful messages from their own experiences, bringing us back to why we are here – for the patients.

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The inspirational Tracy Myhill then shared her own personal story and values to send us away with some inspirational food for thought during her closing address “My Passion, My People.”

You can find a range of photos from the conference & awards here.

What was your favourite moment of our 2023 Conference & Awards? Let us know by tagging us on X @HPMA_National and sharing your highlights #Passion4People.