RYA Connected Conference – London and South East
Book now to join the RYA Connected Conference in London and the South 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 Welsh Harp Sailing Club, Hythe and Saltwood Sailing Club and King George Sailing Club to cover a wide range of topics such as using technology to drive engagement and diversifying membership pricing and packages to encourage participation.
Here’s what your day will look like
Date
22 November 2026
Time
09.15 - 16.30
Location
St Wilfrid's Catholic School,
Crawley,
RH11 8PG
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
- How to deliver yacht and keelboat activity
- 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
- Growing instructor and coach teams
- Safe recruitment: who is eligible for DBS checks
- Powering Club Racing: How Technology can drive Engagement in Club Racing
- Instructor Development Project:
- Hythe & Saltwood Sailing Club – Membership Pricing & Packaging
- Digital Horizons – Expanding your Online Footprint/Creating Engaging Social Content
- Supporting your Race Team:
- Using AI
- King George Sailing Club - Beyond Volunteers
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
- Powering club racing: how technology can drive engagement in club racing
Hear how Welsh Harp Sailing Club have used technology to support club racing by making it easier to organise, promote and take part. Explore how digital tools can improve communication, increase engagement and help more members get involved in regular racing.
- Instructor development project
Hear how a local instructor development project has helped grow the instructor workforce, build confidence and create clearer pathways for volunteers to progress into teaching roles.
- Hythe & Saltwood SC: Membership pricing and packaging
A deeper exploration and chance to ask questions around how Hythe & Saltwood SC diversified its membership offer and pricing structure to support family sailing, attract new members and encourage more regular participation.
- King George SC: Beyond Volunteers
Hear how KGSC have used paid instructors to complement volunteer delivery, increase capacity and support sustainable club growth. Explore how professional support can help kick-start activity while strengthening the wider volunteer team.
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 already 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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