UALL held another successful conference hosted in partnership with the University of Wolverhampton at the state-of-the-art Telford Innovation Campus, April 10^th – 12^th. Drawing inspiration from this venue and the legacy of the Ironbridge Gorge – the birthplace of the first Industrial Revolution – our conference theme was Lifelong Learning and Innovation.

Over the 3 days mind, our programme was full with a mixture of workshops and papers, all peer-reviewed, exploring the theme and looking into subjects such as the impact of Lifelong Learning in Austerity, education within prisons and the legacy of the 1919 Commission on Lifelong Learning and what the future holds for Lifelong Learning during the fourth revolution.

On the Thursday morning, we had the formal opening by the UALL Chair, The Reverend Canon Professor Peter Neil, and Professor Geoff Layer, Vice Chancellor of University of Wolverhampton.

We were extremely lucky and grateful to have not just one guest keynote speaker but three who were innovative, dynamic and insightful. Speaking on the Thursday and Friday who spoke upon one of our three programme strands:

• Innovation in Daily Life and Lifelong Learning: Professor Keith Grint, Professor Emeritus, Warwick University
• Lifelong Learning and Place: Mr Anthony Painter, Director of the Action and Research Centre, RSA
• Transformational Change:  Professor Mark Brown, Director of the National Institute of Digital Learning (NIDL), Dublin City University  

It was wonderful to have the conference well attended, both with full conference and day delegates. We also had a strong international contingent of delegates, paper submissions and presentations. UALL would like to thank University Telford Centre who organised a visit for welcomed our delegates on the Wednesday.

We livened up the informal and social aspects of the Conference this year. For the first time, we had local entertainment on the first night. We had performances from the Telford Bulgarian Folk and Chinese Dancers. Then we held the formal Conference dinner in Ironbridge, with a photo opportunity at the famous bridge. It was a perfect setting for the concluding aspect of the dinner, the UALL Awards ceremony.

The UALL Awards have four categories that celebrates aspects of Lifelong Learning: Innovation, Sustainability, Research and International. Compered by our colleague Pauline McManus, our winners and runner ups were presented awards and certificates by the UALL Chair, The Reverend Canon Professor Peter Neil.

Full details of the winners and runners up of the Awards can be found here. 

But the night did not end there, and with an introduction by Professor Geoff Layer, UALL honoured Professor Sir Alan Tuckett with a special award in recognition of his lifelong service to lifelong learning.