SDF’s Festival of Learning and Development 2024
Date: 11, 12 and 13 November 2024
Blended approach: SDF Zoom, Advance HE connect and Regional Networks
Below are our partners who have very kindly confirmed their support for the SDF Festival of Learning and Development 2024. More partners and supporters will be added shortly.
Key Festival Partner
Advance HE is a member-led, sector-owned charity that works with institutions and higher education across the world to improve higher education for staff, students and society. Our strategic goals to enhance confidence and trust in HE, address systemic inequalities and advance education to meet the evolving needs of students and society, supports the work of our members and the HE sector.
We are experts in higher education with a particular focus on enhancing teaching and learning, effective governance, leadership development and tackling inequalities through our equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) work. We deliver our support through professional development programmes and events, Fellowships, awards, student surveys, providing strategic change and consultancy services and through membership (including accreditation of teaching and learning, equality charters, research, knowledge and resources).
SDF Awards Partner
We’re delighted to welcome Women-Space Limited as our SDF Awards Partner for 2024.
Created by Professor Christina Hughes, Women-Space is a career coaching and leadership company set up to help the many wonderful women in higher education to progress and flourish in the professional lives and careers. As an executive career coach, Christina works to challenge the kind of thinking that holds you back, finding positive solutions that support your values and engage your passions, so you can bring what really matters to you into your working life
Festival Strand Partner
We’re delighted to be working with Belbin for another year as a Festival Strand Partner.
Belbin is a highly respected workplace tool that enables people to understand the strengths and weaknesses of individuals – and helps organisations bring together the right people to form high performing teams. The Belbin Reports, which can incorporate feedback from others, help managers manage their teams, and look for the potentially ‘missing element’ when recruiting. They make the theoretical relevant.
By using Belbin, individuals have a greater self-understanding of their strengths, which leads to more effective communication between colleagues and managers. Great teams can be put together, existing teams can be understood and improved, and everyone can feel that they are making a difference in the workplace.
Festival Strand Partner
We’re pleased to welcome for another year – Formium Development.
At Formium Development we’re passionate about helping everyone to do more of their best work, to be more fulfilled and productive, and make positive and lasting change.
We believe that people, teams and organisations get their best results from working with their strengths.
Our highly experienced and qualified coaches, trainers and facilitators have worked with a wide range of universities, local and central government, the NHS, charitable organisations, and private companies from SMEs to multinationals. Our bespoke solutions cover the range of executive and team coaching, facilitation, training courses, and organisational development.
Festival Strand Partner
We’re delighted to welcome Upwrd as one of our new partners for the SDF Festival in 2024.
Upward are the leading Leadership Development company for senior leaders, aspiring leaders and ambitious managers for people-first organisations, believing that access to best-in-class leadership and career development learning and professional coaching should not be solely for top executives at big businesses.
A diverse network of next generation professional coaches (all ICF or EMCC accredited), trainers and facilitators, the team at Upwrd collaborate with their clients to develop their leaders and managers to lead themselves and to lead others, Better, providing best-in-class, research-backed and highly practical leadership development coaching, programmes and workshops.
Festival Strand Partner
Marshall’s have provided growing support to the SDF Conference in previous years and we are delighted to welcome them again this year as Festival Strand Partner.
After 20 years as an independent company, Marshalls became part of the Ciphr family in 2023.
As one of the UK’s leading providers of integrated HR and learning management solutions, Ciphr and Marshall’s have a natural synergy which will allow them to scale-up people-focussed training, reaching more organisations than ever before. For Marshall’s clients, that means a broader range of courses, an expanded production team, all with the same core commitment to Diversity and Inclusion and customer service that Marshall’s are known for.
Festival Strand Partner
Another new supporter for this year’s Festival of Learning and Development, we’re pleased to welcome the Emotional Intelligence Company, helping leaders develop the enhanced emotional intelligence to drive change.
For over two decades, EI Company have collaborated with MDs, CEOs, managers, coaches and consultants to create thriving environments that build the loyalty, trust, transparency and support they need to lead their teams to success. Emotional Intelligence is the differentiator between mild success and outstanding achievements – regardless of intellectual intelligence – and their aim is to help you develop your own EI and enhance your relationships with the people you lead.
Are you ready to lead yourself – and others – to success?
Workshop Lead Partner
We’re delighted to welcome Tailored Thinking back as supporters for this year’s Festival.
Bringing a positively deviant perspective, informed by wellbeing and behavioural science, Tailored Thinking are a business and performance consultancy, supporting organisations to reach their highest levels of potential, bringing out the best of their people, through education and the design and delivery of key activities and core strategy.
If you work in Higher Education you may be interested in how their tailored services can support you and your teams.
Workshop Lead Partner
Another welcome return to GatenbySanderson as Workshop Lead Partner.
GatenbySanderson is the UK’s leading people advisory firm across public services, not for profit and education.
Working within complex, challenging and highly scrutinised environments they deliver executive search, interim leadership and leadership development and consultancy.
Workshop Lead Partner
We’re very pleased to welcome The Learning Moment back again this year as Workshop Lead Partner.
At The Learning Moment we help teams and people thrive at work through learning. Andry and her team listen to you and design bespoke development programmes to match your needs. This gives you the results and transformation you want.
The Learning Moment programmes help develop well-being, resilience, management, leadership, EDI, innovation, coaching and mentoring skills for your staff and you. Andry’s book and online course The REALLY RESILIENT GUIDE, will empower you to overcome obstacles and develop the confidence to handle almost any professional situation.
Connect with us at thelearningmoment.org.
Workshop Lead Partner
We’re delighted to welcome NoGuru as supporters for this year’s festival.
NoGuru are your specialist for training, learning and development. Whether it’s a formal qualification from ILM, a team building event or you want to train or develop staff in new found skills, we think you have found the right partner. With additional pressure to do more … with less, it’s more important than ever that you have a workforce that leads, manages and performs to excellent standards.
Organisations like yours want to train and develop your people to:
- Stand out as great leaders and managers
- Create teams that deliver on objectives
- Enhance “engagement” in the workplace
- Deliver better service or sell more products and services
- Motivate, retain and coach your key staff
So, you’ll need someone who doesn’t just deliver generic training but can quickly absorb themselves in your organisation, your strategic aims and the challenges you face. And we think you will appreciate someone who listens to what you want; not gives you what they think you need.
Workshop Lead Partner
Another warm welcome to a new partner for the 2024 Festival – Gradconsult.
Gradconsult is a unique collective of professionals from a variety of backgrounds who work together to support university careers services and early careers teams to develop, innovate and deliver impact.
We are careers team leaders, early careers experts, learning and development specialists, organisational psychologists, researchers and evaluators. This fusion of expertise, together with our deep understanding of the sector make us the ideal partner for teams seeking to address new challenges in different ways.