SIMS Annual Conference 2009

This year’s SIMS Annual Conference was held at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham University on the 22-24 June 2009. Over 330 delegates attended representing 115 local authorities. The focus of the conference was the 21st Century Local Authority, following on from last year’s 21st Century School theme.

In a departure from previous years, the conference was hosted by professional journalist and presenter Nadine Dereza. During platform sessions, delegates were able to text their questions to Nadine who would then relay them to the platform speakers at the end of their presentations.

A number of platform session video recordings have been made available – please click here for more details.

As well as the main keynotes, delegates had a number of electives to choose from. I was lucky enough to squeeze into a packed session run by Dave Cattlin, Information Systems Manager at Rochdale local authority and Chair of the SIMS Northern User Group. Dave explained how he and his support team rolled out a SIMS assessment tracking system to Rochdale schools and how this has benefited teaching and learning in the area.

I was interviewed as I arrived at the conference and was asked what I was looking forward to most. My answer was along the lines of “learning how I can help my schools get more out of their SIMS investment”. While this was true, it was only achieved with the help of the other attendees. It was great to catch up again with colleagues from other local authorities and partner companies (good to see you presenting at the conference again Ray!).

You’d be hard pushed to find a more dedicated, professional, friendly and forward thinking group of people at any other event. Despite suffering budget cuts, salary reductions and numerous reorganisations, the delegates who attended the SIMS Annual Conference continue to work hard to improve the opportunities for children through the effective use of management information systems in schools.