Lecturer and symposium's key contributors confirmed 
    
  The  Leisure Review will be hosting a  symposium in Oxford on 31 March and
 
  1 April to explore a viable and  sustainable future for the sport, leisure and culture sector. We are  pleased to be able to confirm Sam Jones from Demos as the presenter of The Leisure Review lecture and to provide details of the  facilitators and key contributors who will help lead discussion during the  course of the event. 
We recognise that these are unprecedented political, economic and financial circumstances in which to consider the role and future of cultural services but such times serve to refocus attention on the fundamental importance of cultural services within the private, public and voluntary sectors. The Leisure Review symposium has been devised for senior, highly experienced management professionals with a role in shaping the future of cultural services for communities across the UK. The symposium programme will provide an open, proactive and challenging environment in which sport, leisure and culture professionals can explore the realities of creating a viable, sustainable and positive future for cultural services. We would like to invite you to join them.
The key contributors to the symposium include:
Sam  Jones 
    Sam is the author of  Culture Shock, a paper published by Demos that provides a proactive and  insightful examination of the future of culture and cultural policy. Written as  part of a fellowship hosted by Demos and CASE, the Culture and Sport Evidence  Programme run by the DCMS, Arts Council England, MLA, English Heritage and  Sport England, Culture Shock explores the extent and nature of public  participation in culture and sport in Britain. The paper addresses the  long-standing need to review the purposes and mechanisms of cultural policy,  providing a number of 'provocations' that might reshape our understanding of  how culture is accessed and delivered in the future. Sam will be delivering The  Leisure Review lecture.
    • Read Culture Shock in this issue of The Leisure Review. 
Richard  Ward 
  Richard has a distinguished background as a coaching   and sports development manager but  now runs an NHS GP practice and is the managerial lead for the Mid-Devon GP consortium.   Richard will offer a view of the future of sport, leisure and culture from the   perspective of an imperilled health service looking   to respond to numerous and varied challenges of its own.
Pete Ackerley, head of national game development at the Football Association, and Richard Hunt, head of service for culture, sport and communities at Suffolk County Council, have kindly agreed to serve on the panel to lead the debate at the opening session. We are also delighted that Martyn Allison, culture lead at the Local Government Improvement & Development agency, and Duncan Wood-Allum, managing director of the Sport, Leisure and Culture Consultancy, will serve as facilitators during the symposium's key discussions.
Our event managers First City Events will be happy to discuss flexible approaches to payment in an effort to help obviate the worst effects of Messrs Osborne, Clegg and Cameron; we want you there, by hook or by crook.
The Leisure Review symposium
Date: Thursday 31 March and Friday 1 April 2011
Venue: Wadham College, University of Oxford
The  concept
    The  Leisure Review is hosting a 24-hour symposium to provide an opportunity for senior  practitioners and thought-leaders within the sport, leisure and culture sector  to explore the future of the sector within the context of national policy and  funding priorities. Through facilitated discussion and debate the symposium will create an  environment for new and challenging thinking. Wadham College, Oxford will  provide the appropriately scholarly setting for the event and delegate numbers  will be limited to 80 to facilitate the exchange of ideas and perspectives.
The format
The emphasis of the  symposium will be on providing delegates with opportunities for interaction  with speakers, colleagues and peers, both formally and informally, throughout  the programme. The opening afternoon will feature an expert panel to place  sport, leisure and culture within the context of the new political and economic  environment. Delegates will be invited to explore and challenge the panel’s  theses, offering their own view of a viable and sustainable future for the  sector. This will be followed by The  Leisure Review lecture, the centrepiece of the event, and the symposium  dinner. The final morning of the symposium will comprise focused discussion  groups exploring specific aspects of the previous day’s debates. A closing  plenary session will summarise the key conclusions of the symposium and seek to  draft a communiqué relating to the future of the sport, leisure and culture  sector.
Programme:
 
    
    Thursday  31 March 
1.30pm      Arrival,  registration and refreshments 
2.00pm      Facilitated  discussion session with expert panel 
(inc refreshments) 
4.30pm      Opening  session concludes 
6.00pm      Early-evening  reception 
6.30pm      The Leisure Review lecture: Culture Shock 
7.30pm      Symposium  dinner in the Grand Hall of Wadham College
           
Friday 1 April 
  9.30am    Discussion  groups
11.30am    The symposium communiqué
12.30pm    Symposium programme closes
An informal post-symposium programme will include the options of continuing discussion, site visits and study tours within the city of Oxford.
For the inaugural symposium we are delighted to offer the TLR First 500 and Friends a preferential delegate rate. A variety of rooms have been reserved within, and within walking distance of, Wadham College.
    BOOK NOW: download the symposium booking form
The Leisure Review symposium 
    
    A new way of thinking about the delivery of sport, leisure and culture 
    
    
  

     The University of Oxford: home to the TLR symposium