A Postcard from Sunny Manchester!

What an inspiring and engaging experience in Manchester this June!

As well as our fully booked annual national networking event held at Chotto Matte, we were also delighted to become finalists four times at the Inside Housing/Ocean Media Housing Heroes and Women in Housing Awards at Housing 2026!

We were blown away by the amazing talent our sector has, and loved hearing so many inspiring stories from the other awards finalists - although we didn't win this time (cliché incoming), we feel like winners to have such an awe inspiring network of women and allies to share our space with.

Huge congratulations to all the winners and finalists, including our very own Gill Cook, Hayley Gillard and the wonderful WISH South West team!

A huge thank you also to the fantastic speakers who joined us this year, including Rebekah Cliff from Novus Property Solutions, Elyse Hodgess from Adecco and Melanie Saunders from Primas Law, whose organisations were also our generous sponsors for the event.

Enormous thanks to our wonderful networking event organisers, Penni Pennington and the Connect In Events team for putting on yet another incredible event for our members and guests, and our lovely host Claire Bailey-Jones from Novus.

We were also delighted to be joined by Lynn Stubbs, Chief People and Governance Officer at Amplius, who talked about the Harry’s Pledge campaign and how sector organisations can make a difference to the lives of carers and disabled people.

And a massive thanks of course to our fantastic network and regional board members who came along for support, and without whom we would not be able to provide the services, opportunities and support that we do!

Looking forward to seeing you at next year's event!

The WISH Central Team