Your Movement Needs You – Vegan Party Conference

The Vegan Party Conference is held at Kensington Town Halls in London weekend September 28th 29th. So what exactly is the Vegan Party Conference?

The Vegan Party Conference is a gathering of the main campaign groups and a number of grassroots activists campaigning for veganism, animal rights and plant-based food systems. Over 40 campaign groups are represented with over 100 speakers taking part, and around 600 attendees each day, the biggest conference of this nature for some time in the UK, including some well-known and high-profile vegans alongside campaign groups and street activists, and people interested in these areas.

Who is it for?
The Conference is open to anyone to attend as an attendee and is aimed at people who are vegan, and people thinking about going vegan or interested in plant-based food options and shifts to plant-based food systems. If you are vegan, or an animal rights activist, or a campaigner, or concerned about animals or the environment, human health issues or food justice, this conference is very much for you. You don’t have to be vegan to attend the conference, these are issues that affect us all, we are all part of the solution, & there are plenty of welcoming, supportive & friendly campaign groups present who would be more than happy to talk to you about plant based lifestyles and veganism or answer any questions, as well as the rest of the conference content – you’ll be very welcome.

Why should I attend?
Your movement needs you! We are standing on the brink of some major changes for animals and the environment, and we need to unite, get informed and get behind a number of initiatives to achieve this. The conference is in part a call to arms to mobilise and increase engagement, participation and support for campaigns, outreach, activism and vegan education. The next few years presents a golden opportunity to score some big victories for animals, but we need you to get involved to make this happen. Attending the conference will allow you to connect with so many different inspirational groups and individuals all under one roof.

What are the Remits for the Vegan Party Conference?

The Conference has 3 main remits
Showcase the many campaigns and achievements from within our movement
Optimise from within our current pool of activists and campaigners, broaden our skill set and increase our support for existing campaigns
Attract new people to campaigning circles – in particular vegans who are not yet active, and people not yet vegan.
To achieve these goals we need your help – that’s why your movement needs you now. We need to grow substantially, both in numbers and effectiveness, and that includes you.

What are the panels at the Vegan Party Conference?
There’s around 15 panels in the main hall featuring a variety of experts and covering a wide range of topics including ‘Ending the Use of Animals in Laboratories’ and ‘Accelerating the Pace – Shifting to Plant Based Food Systems.’ They aim to bring a close focus on a number of animal rights, vegan and plant based campaigns & initiatives with a view to how we can come together as a collective and achieve some significant gains for animals and the environment.

Will they be controversial?
The panels are broad in scope but several will tackle movement issues including ‘Moving Beyond the Welfare Paradigm’ which examines the current rights welfare debate with a fresh framework, a look at ‘Language Matters’ focusing on the use of language in advocacy and activism, and the ‘Animal Rights – Human Rights’ panel looking at the contentious issue of focus, scope & inclusivity within the vegan & animal rights movement. All the panels are supportive, respectful and well articulated and combine different views and opinions with a view to seeking learning outcomes and avoiding exclusionary divisions and will be of much value to attendees as well as the broader movement.

And the Workshops?
There’s a series of 25 workshops covering a broad range of topics, suited for people wanting to increase their skill sets, knowledge and understanding of current day activism and campaigning in the UK. Experts from across the movement will be in attendance with all workshops in compact & contained spaces ideal for one to one and audience engagement.

What’s happening on the Celebration Stage?
There’s a whole schedule of 15 really dynamic panels, presentations and interviews with some of the most successful and inspirational activists on the planet right now, with an emphasis on celebrating and showcasing the many achievements in the movement, helping to inspire people to achieve even more. There’s also some comedy hours each day on the Celebration Stage.

Comedy? Where does that fit in?
We take our issues seriously, but not ourselves too seriously and our top-quality vegan comedians reflect that, with the legendary Andrew O’Neill headlining Saturday and Veganuary ambassador Carl Donnelly on Sunday.

Sounds fun. Did someone mention Food?
Oh yes. When vegans gather, there is food, and lots of it, and some pretty amazing options too from our variety of vegan street food caterers and artisan plant based food producers. Cake, obviously. And a real ale bar, and teas and coffees of course. And a nice selection of non food related stalls with some fabulous vegan products.

What does the Conference hope to achieve?
The Conference will bring together a whole collective in the spirit of unity and collective responsibility to help to highly achieve over the next few years for animals and the environment. The new Government has opened up a window of opportunity for some significant gains and the focus of the conference is very much how we can as a movement work together and achieve highly, whilst optimising our own skill sets, increasing support for current campaigns and broadening our range of support and engagement for different projects and initiatives, whilst attracting fresh support, engagement and interest. And with so many incredible people on board, the conference is set to inspire a whole new wave of activism and achievements, and you are invited to be a part of that.

Why do you need me to come to the Conference?
We need to rebuild this movement quickly and firmly after the decimation of the last few years – and the animals and the planet need you like never before. There are some very strong shoots and regeneration, but we must accelerate this process whilst we have this window of opportunity, and we need your participation and your help to achieve this, & to get involved in some of the many different aspects of the movement. Our movement needs every one of us who cares about animals & the environment, and there are so many exciting and worthwhile and effective causes to get involved with and get behind – and this conference will be full of them. Together we can really grow quickly and achieve some truly impactful victories for animals. And we need you to be a part of this transformation.

How do I get involved?
Come along – tickets are only £10 day and £18 weekend and available from the website. And do join the event page for updates & use the invite function to invite friends and get them involved, engage with our social media posts especially in the groups, share the panels and speakers and workshops around, engage with the issues and discussions, support your favourite campaign groups and speakers, sign petitions, send letters, show solidarity, buy some merch, share on SM, get active and get inspired, get motivated – and take part in our survey on movement issues which will be out and about soon. On a global level we need to redouble our efforts for animals and the environment whilst we have the opportunity to do so. Thankyou everyone fighting for animal liberation across the globe.