NWH Conference an Olympian Success

Published by Paul Diggory for North Wales Housing Association in Housing

Monday 30th April 2012 - 4:19pm

(from left) of Olympic athlete, Derek Redmond, Viv Perry whose Area Housing Team, Conwy, won ‘Team of the Year’ and, NWH Chief Executive, Paul Diggory.

North Wales Housing staff marked a further year in the development of the organisation with an Olympic themed Staff Conference where they were joined by former 400m world champion and Olympian Derek Redmond who acted as Guest Speaker.

The 120-strong team gathered at the Quay Hotel in Deganwy for a full day conference that included an awards ceremony and celebration, a dragons den style session, Q&A with the directors, competitions and presentations from partners and senior staff. The day’s highlight was an hour long presentation from Derek Redmond who weaved his Olympic successes and experiences into a team themed talk that proved both inspirational and emotional. For his lap of honour Derek presented the staff awards.

Paul Diggory, Chief Executive at North Wales Housing said: “In the spirit of this years Olympics we felt that a theme based along the same lines would fit well. Derek's visit was the icing on the cake for us and his involvement and input went down incredibly well with plenty of tearful faces.”

Coverage of various events were shown including that of Derek being struck down with an injury at the 1992 Olympics, managing to complete the final leg with the support of his father after suffering a torn hamstring.

Paul continued: “Everyone appeared to get into the spirit of the day and were keen to join in and participate at every stage. This annual event gives us an opportunity to share our vision and future plans with all our colleagues and discuss any issues that will affect the organisation. Whilst there was a clear structure to the day, it also felt pretty informal and relaxed and was an overall enjoyable experience for everyone.”

The Dragons Den style element, which encouraged 12 teams to present ideas for their own social enterprise will be developed further. The most popular three ideas will now be considered as proposals for future projects and will require further input from those team members. The Q&A session also gave staff the opportunity to ask the Chief Exec for feedback on any issue they felt important.

The event was boosted by sponsorship and support from suppliers Ainsely Gommon,Anywl Construction, K&C Building Contractors, Wates Living Space, Seddon Construction, SP Projects , ISP Architects, GM Jones, Gwynedd Electrical, Canning Heating Contractors, PSS & Tunsall whilst the entire project was managed by Manchester-based ConnectIn.