RYA Connected Conference - East
Book now to join the RYA Connected Conference in the East
Now’s your chance to come together with your local sailing community to learn, grow and connect. This exciting event is free to attend and you can send as many members of your team along as you’d like while there are spaces available.
This year, we’ll be welcoming speakers from Norfolk Schools Sailing Association, North Herts & East Beds Sailing Club, Priory Sailing Club and Thorpe Bay Yacht Club to cover a wide range of topics such as making the switch to electric boats and introducing new activities to drive participation.
Here's what your day will look like
Date
21 November 2026
Time
9:15 - 16:30
Location
The Chantry Academy,
Ipswich,
IP2 9LR
Here’s what we’ll be talking about
Your day will start with an opportunity to network, followed by an opening plenary with our guest speaker Giles Graham. Across the rest of the day, you'll have further chances to network with other clubs and will have a choice of forums, presentations and workshops to attend before the closing plenary.
Forums are a chance to share your views on a given topic and hear the insight of others. Workshops are facilitator led, with a combination of presentation, activities and discussion. Presentations are a chance to listen to an expert or another clubs story.
You will have a choice of each of the sessions to attend. To help you plan ahead with your team, this is what we’ll be focusing on this year:
Forums
- Growing opportunities for disabled sailors
- Delivering better racing
- Getting more young people sailing
- Overcoming challenges in training
- Engaging and welcoming more women and girls into our sport
- Creating better blue spaces and reducing environmental impact
- Welfare Officers session with your local Sport Welfare officer
- Using digital tools to improve the running of your organisation
Presentations
- Accidents & Incidents
- Get Wing Foiling
- Safe recruitment: who is eligible for DBS checks
- Supporting your Race Team
- Using AI
- Going Electric
- Introducing New Activity to Drive Participation
- Utilising Software to Make Managing your Club Easier
- Developing a Supportive Volunteer Led Community
- Growing instructor and coach teams:
- Harnessing the Power of Content
- Introducing New Activity to Drive Participation:
Workshops
- Handling complaints and safeguarding concerns with confidence
- Growing instructor and race coach teams
- Growing racing activity and race teams
- Getting it right for women and girls
- Funding Future Growth while keeping your club accessible and affordable
- Building programmes that get more young people out on the water
- Understanding and meeting members needs
Sessions led by your local clubs and centres
What’s the value of switching to electric boats for your club? Norfolk Schools Sailing Association will be talking about how they introduced new electric outboard powered safety boats and how this change has reduced their operating costs and impact on the environment.
- Introducing new activities to drive participation
Discover how North Herts & East Beds SC adopted a more person-centred approach and have seen a huge increase in demand as a result.
- Utilising software to make managing your club easier
With so many software options available, it’s hard to know what might be the right fit for your club and how you can use it effectively. Hear how Thorpe Bay YC integrated online systems to manage everything from boat berths to bar payments.
- Developing a Supportive Volunteer Led Community:
Learn how Priory Sailing Club introduced a raft of initiatives, including a programme of mentoring for members, resulting in growth across activities including volunteering.
For more detailed information on all the above sessions, download the full agenda.
Book now
All Connected events are FREE to attend for RYA Affiliates.
Many of our affiliates find they get most benefit from RYA Connected Conferences by sending multiple members of the team along to learn as much as possible and spur each other into taking action back at your venue. Attendees may ready be on your board or involved in your operations, or they may be interested in doing so in future - an RYA Connected Conference is an excellent way to get them started.
There's no limit to the number of people you can send, but please be aware that we expect this event to be fully booked so book now to avoid disappointment!
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