Here are taster of the subjects people are interested in:

Affordable housing * Fuel poverty * Public transport * Strong Communities * Broadband * Community empowerment * Dying villages * Housing * Local energy * Local services * Rural isolation * Transport

With people from:

Arqiva * Charity Bank * DavePress * Linconshire County Council * May Partnership Ltd * NAVCA * Pathfinder   * Popokatea * ruralnet * SCIP * Soil Association * Stratford-upon-Avon CVS * Yorkshire Forward *

Signing up is easy and you can meet some interesting people and take part in some interesting debates.

What do YOU want to talk about?

Ian Brown

We are delighted to announce that Ian Brown will be joining us to speak during the opening session of ruralnet|2008. Ian Brown is a Director of the social enterprise Local Living, founder of North East Rural Affairs Forum and Rural advocate on the One North East Board.

A bit about Ian:

As well as being a member of the One NorthEast Board, Ian has many business interests in the region.  He is a partner in the family farming and commercial property business, which he took over in 1986 after gaining his early farming experience in mid-Northumberland and Fife.

Ian has connections in both the North East and Yorkshire, living in Rennington near Alnwick and having spent seven years of his school life at Ashville College in Harrogate.

In 1985 Ian was appointed by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to Chair of the Environment Agency’s Regional Environmental Protection Advisory Committee for the North East and Yorkshire for a three year period.  At 39, Ian was the youngest Chair of an Environment Agency Committee in the country.  He was also Vice-Chair of the Rural Affairs Forum until June 2008.  From 2001 to 2004 he chaired the North East Rural Affairs Forum.

He is an Honorary Alderman of the County of Northumberland, and has previously served as a Northumberland County Council and as a parish councillor for Rennington Parish Council and a member of the Democracy Commission for Northumberland.

Read more about Ian on his website: http://www.leemoor.net/.

If you would like to reach these people, then please take a look at the different ways here.  Prices start from £40 + VAT for your logo on the website.  Be quick! Deadlines apply to the delegate pack inserts and delegate brochure adverts.

Contact Samantha Adams or Rob Mannion on 0845 1300 411 if you require any further information.

Networking needs YOU! If you have not already signed up, do so here - and see who you could ‘meet’.

This could be you!

We are using the social networking tool ‘Crowdvine’ to encourage delegates and those with an interest in all things rural to ‘meet’ and share ideas, practices and solutions before the event in Skipton a concept known as an ‘unconference’; knowing who will be at the event and where their interests lie, saves precious time during the conference itself.

And people who cannot attend the event can also get involved.  The simple sign up takes less than a minute and delegates have access to each other - it’s a bit like a delegate list, but much better!  Instead of a just a name and email address, ‘Profiles’ consist of a photo, location, personal link, description, blog posts, and a brief outline of why they are attending ruralnet|2008. Members can also incorporate RSS feeds from another blog, photo stream, or social bookmarking site.  Members can invite friends, make friends, message each other, and comment on each others pages.

The discussions that are generated within this ‘Networking’ part of the ruralnet|2008 website, will feed into the ‘Unplugged’ session at the conference.  So the plan for this plenary session will be generated up to one day before the event - exciting stuff!

To join in, meet others and take a sneak preview of Live & Local sign up here: http://ruralnet2008.crowdvine.com/

This year we are doing things a bit different. We are getting creative with the latest Web 2.0 technology which will enable opportunities for people to ‘meet’ before the event and find out who will be there, amongst other things. The ‘Unplugged’ plenary session on Day 2 of ‘Live & Local’ is a bit of an open book at the moment….it’s the delegates who will create the content.

Over the next few weeks, we will be creating the ’space’ for delegates to form discussion topics before the event and engage with others that have similar interests.

We will be writing more about this session in the coming weeks - it’s going to be good!

The Plunkett Foundation is offer funding, support and free advice to rural communities across Britain whose village shop, Post Office or other retail service is threatened. The Plunkett Foundation recognises that community-ownership is often the only viable option for villages wishing to retain or introduce a local shop. Are there additional services that can co-exist in the village shop and post office and help improve their viability? What additional social benefits does community-ownership bring?

Charlotte Foster, Community Retail Adviser:

“I’m looking forward to facilitating a workshop for ruralnet|uk.  In particular, I hope the participants will learn more about the social benefits of community ownership and the support that ViRSA offers to rural communities.”

We are delighted that the Plunkett Foundation is supporting ‘Live & Local’ is this way and they are an exciting addition to an already impressive workshop line up, which includes The Soil Association and Land for People.

ViRSA is an activity of the The Plunkett Foundation.

Land for People, the community land trust, exists to help communities in Wales, Shropshire and the Marches become more sustainable, with an emphasis on building affordable homes for local people. They will also be delivering the ‘Local Ownership’ workshop at ruralnet|2008.

Land for People believe that for communities to become more sustainable, people living and working in them need to access to land, buildings and finance. This workshop will discuss how local communities can take control of their resources and environment for the long-term benefit of their community.

At a time of rising food prices, the opportunities and challenges that exist for local food markets is of particular interest and importance. This workshop will examine the emergence of local food co-operatives, the growing demand for allotments and the opportunities to ‘grow your own’ - includes case study examples.

The Soil Association has just begun an exciting new programme to develop CSAs and organic buying groups. They are part of a partnership project on local food and social enterprise, ‘Making Local Food Work’, funded by the Big Lottery Fund.

Community supported agriculture (CSA) is about reconnecting people with the farm on which their food is grown. There are lots of different ways that CSA can work. Normally, local people will invest in their local farm in some way in return for a share of the harvest. CSA is a partnership between farmers and consumers where the responsibilities and rewards of farming are shared.

For more information about the scheme visit their site.

To book your place at ruralne|2008 Live & Local - go to the booking page.