Previous Observatory events

We provide seminars and an annual conference to share good practice, network in a community of people with similar interests and keep up-​to-​date with the latest developments in research.

Observatory Annual Conference

Our 2008 Annual conference, Better Evidence… Better Policy, was held on 13 October 2008 in Coventry.

Key-​​note speaker Ian Austin MP gave his first speech as Regional Minister for the West Midlands. This was followed by speeches from Rosie Paskins, Observatory Chief Executive, Professor Carl Chinn and Professor Alan Harding.

See our Annual Conference page for speech podcasts, presentations and discussion notes from the workshops.

Seminars

We provide a programme of seminars on a variety of themes around research, statistics and intelligence. Keep informed of future events with our events RSS feed, through email invites (register with us) or checking our events calendar.

• New and emerging challenges of population change
• Neighbourhood level indicators for Local Area Agreements
• Population changes in the West Midlands
• Best practice on presenting statistics
• Research on raising aspirations and motivations in disadvantaged communities
• Research in the voluntary and community sector
• Rural evidence

Suggest a theme for future seminars

We welcome suggestions on themes for our seminars. Please contact Oliver Nicholls at oliver.nicholls@wmro.org or telephone 0121 202 3244.