"The RSN Annual conference is excellent, it brings together a wide range of speakers focusing specifically on rural issues in a way that other conferences simply can't do."

This is just one of the pieces of feedback received following last week’s National Rural Conference 2023.

Over the course of 4 days, we had:

• 7 sessions
• 25 speakers
• nearly 500 delegates
• 115 organisations
• 13 hours of presentations
• (We lost count of the number of cups of coffee consumed by the team!)

The topics under the spotlight covered all aspects of rural life and highlighted many of the issues and challenges facing rural communities. 

The Rural Economy session spotlighted recent research from NICRE and gave delegates some early feedback regarding the findings of that survey.  Whilst many rural businesses outlined significant challenges in the last 12 months, the level of optimism for the next years was encouraging.

For the first time, the session on Rural Health and Care came with a health warning from speaker Professor Stuart Maitland-Knibb who shared with delegates graphic images from his job as a medic with the air ambulance and he told stories of how lives in rural areas would have been lost without that valuable resource.

The Rural Transport session was especially well attended with delegates hearing from a range of speakers, all of whom had a clear understanding of the challenges facing rural communities.

The conference also heard from a range of political figures including the Chair of the APPG for Rural Services, Derek Thomas MP; the government’s Rural Connectivity Champion, Simon Fell MP, Transport Lead for the Rural Services APPG, Selaine Saxby; and DEFRA minister Lord Benyon.  All shared their own experiences of rural life and welcomed the thoughts shared by delegates.

If you would like to find out more about this years conference, please see our Highlights here.

The conference will return for 2024 and further details will be announced next year.