In just under six months, Spirit of 2012 will host its final conference before our planned closure in 2026. The event will be an opportunity to both celebrate what Spirit has achieved over the last 12 years, and the knowledge and insights that we’ve generated. Importantly, this will be an opportunity to explore what next – both from the work of our Legacy Learning Partners – and how Spirit’s knowledge bank and archive will be accessible post closure. More details about the event and how to secure a place will be coming soon.
In advance of this final event, we are hosting a series of events over the coming months to explore different areas of our learning, with support from our learning partners and previous grantees.
Thursday 15th May – Investing in happiness: Lessons from 12 years of measuring wellbeing with Pro Bono Economics
On May 15th there is an opportunity to hear from us and our learning partner Pro Bono Economics, focussing on Spirit’s 12 years of lessons on measuring wellbeing and happiness and using that to assess the monetary value of increasing wellbeing through culture, sport and volunteering. We will be joined by partners UK Youth, The Wave Project and Activity Alliance to explore their insights on using different ways of measuring wellbeing.
This session is aimed at charities, policy makers and fellow funders interested in the future of wellbeing evaluation.
Date and time: Thursday, 15 May 2025, 8:45 am – 12:00 pm
Location: 58VE, The Nesta Building, 58 Victoria Embankment, London
Wednesday 21st May – Creating The Golden Thread
Later in May we’ll be heading to Liverpool with Warwick Business School to explore and share best practice in events from across the UK and ask what’s next for the UK events landscape. Jointly hosted by Claire McColgan (Liverpool City Region) and Dave Moutrey (Manchester City Council) this event will:
- facilitate knowledge sharing across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to maximise the social, cultural, and economic benefits of major events
- Exchange insights on the impact of combined sports, culture and business major event strategies across different cities and regions
- Share learning from existing home nation major event strategies and the UK-wide Gold Framework
- Recognise and enhance the role of local events in strengthening regional and home nation identities, community cohesion, cultural exchanges
- Work towards low cost, high impact recommendations to improve the productivity and connectivity of UK-wide major events
This event is now full but please contact us if you would like to be added to the waitlist.
Wednesday 4th June – The Foundations of Event Volunteering with Neighbourly Lab & DHA Communications
We are celebrating Volunteers’ Week with an event designed to share our learnings from 12 years of funding event volunteering initiatives. DHA Communications will be sharing the results of their research on how events could strengthen the infrastructure around volunteering, Neighbourly Lab will be exploring the impact of volunteering in cities that bid for the City of Culture designation and we will be joined by volunteers from the Hull City of Culture and Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games legacies who will share their stories.
Date and time: Wednesday 4th June, 1:00 – 4:00pm
Location: 58VE, Nesta, 58 Victoria Embankment, London, EC4Y 0DS
Wednesday 22nd October – Spirit of 2012 Final Conference
Save the date for our final conference to explore all our learning and insights over the last 12 years and help us celebrate what Spirit has achieved – more information to follow.
Read more
- Spirit of 2012 to share its event volunteering knowledge in Volunteers Week event
- Spirit of 2012 and Pro Bono Economics present must-know lessons from 12 years of measuring wellbeing
- Spirit of 2012 awards new contracts to deliver final year projects
- Catch us while you can! Spirit of 2012 will close at the end of this year.