Vegan Party Conference Sept 28th 29th - Panels & Workshops (1)

Vegan Party Conference Sept 28th 29th 2024

Launch with First Panels and Workshops Announced

The first panels and workshops for the inaugural Vegan Party Conference, held at Kensington Town Halls in September, have been announced for an event that promises to bring together animal advocates & grassroots activists alongside many of the main vegan, animal rights and plant based campaign groups for a weekend of skill sharing, training, networking, showcasing, celebrating, discussion, debate, movement building, strategising and calls for action.

With a remit to showcase both the collective and the individuals within the movement, optimise from within the current activists collective, and attract more people to get active, the conference focuses on two main goals – animal liberation alongside a shift to plant based food systems – and unites the collective to focus on key areas within the movement with the aim of achieving some notable results over the next few years, a process now re-energised with the emergence of a new Government that has already pledged to make major changes to benefit animals and the environment.

15 Panels are scheduled over the weekend, looking at multiple aspects of the vegan, animal rights and plant based movement, and include two keynote panels – ‘Accelerating the Pace – Shifting to Plant Based Food Systems‘ with representatives from Plant Based News, Plant Based Councils, Plant Based Universities, Vegan Network, & Vegans Support the Farmers, and a panel entitled ‘Ending the Use of Animals in Laboratories‘ featuring Animal Aid, Lush, XcelleR8 & Shac Justice Project, all of whom are groups and individuals on the cusp on new developments in this field. Further panels include ‘Vegan Education in Schools, Colleges and Universities‘, ‘The Legal Protection for Vegans & Normalising Vegan Inclusion‘, a look at ‘Vegan Advocacy in Health Care‘ plus a panel focusing on ‘Ending the Use of Animals for Entertainment‘, alongside an examination on the use of language in animal advocacy -‘Language Matters – Framing Veganism‘- with more panels to be announced during August.

Workshops include ‘Dismantling Systems of Oppression‘ with Stuart Evans (Animals Alliance Project), ‘Creating a Narrative Strategy for Campaigns‘ with Natalie Braine from Animal Think Tank, ‘How Pressure Campaigns Can Change the World‘ with Tom Harris, ‘Vegan Mental Health‘ with Dr Ishani Rao, ‘Plant Based Treaty Cities Campaign‘ with Lia Phillips, ‘How to Host a Vegan Bring & Share‘ with Tracey & Simon West (Word Forest), ‘Energy for Activists‘ with Juliette Bryant (All You Need), ‘Working Together: Successful Movement Ecosystems‘ with Dilan Fernando (Animal Think Tank), ‘Tackling Recidivism: how to keep vegans vegan, and why this matters so much‘ with Kate Fowler (Gen V), ‘Navigating Activism Anxiety: Courage, Vulnerability, and the Power of Play‘ with Sash Joliffe (We The Free), ‘Optimising from Within – Energy for the 21st Century Activist‘ with Vanessa Sturman and ‘Conflict Resolution for Animal Liberation‘ with Jen Deighan – Schenck (We The Free) plus ‘Insight Vegan: Meditation as Tool for Clear Seeing, and Sustainable Activism‘ from Philip Murphy, with more to be announced in August.

‘The last few years have seen a number of groups and individuals begin to focus on movement building, collaborating and working as a collective and the Conference aims to accelerate this process. The current animal rights, vegan and plant-based movement is made up of a number of strong individuals and groups, many of whom are highly achieving and well advanced in the art of social and mainstream media promotion. And now we are seeing our movement come together as a collective and begin to speak as one, which is key to making the significant progress we need to make, even more so given the current climate crisis. The advent of the new Government has sharpened this focus, and there is a growing awareness that the next 5 years presents our movement with a window of opportunity like never before. But to achieve the goals we all want, we have to work as a collective as well as individually, and this conference aims to explore and enhance this opportunity, whilst encouraging more people to get active for animals and the environment’.

The Conference also includes a Celebration Stage with a schedule of interviews and presentations, with some notable groups and individuals alongside some of the best known vegan comedians on the circuit to add a splash of entertainment to accompany the plethora of food and drink outlets – all 100% plant based, naturally – plus the addition of an Art Exhibition on the Upper Floor from Art of Compassion Project, and tickets are on sale for the 1000 visitor capacity Conference venue in the heart of the West End of London. Full schedules and splits are on the website from September 1st, with many already announced.