The Gathering 2022 - the power of networking and skilled volunteering

In the first step back into the non-virtual conference world, I attended The Gathering 2022 at the SEC in Glasgow last month. This was a return to a physical space for the first time in three years for the annual third sector conference and my first time attending an event dedicated to a world I’ve only come to know since the Scottish Tech Army launched.

I’ve been attending conferences for donkey’s years and they hold no fear for me, but this time I was a little nervous, because it’s not until you go to a big event like The Gathering that you get a sense of how effective your networking has been. It’s easy to feel like a complete stranger and the reality is that I had developed the many relationships we have in the STA via a computer screen.

I needn’t have worried. I was barely in the door of the SEC when I met not one, but two people who I knew and who knew me on sight. We were delighted to see each other, and it was a lovely way to begin the day.

The Gathering is the largest voluntary sector event in the UK, organised by the SCVO. There were dozens of workshops, talks, and showcases, attended by everything from volunteers to politicians and a lot in between. The First Minister showed up for breakfast, there were talks about governance, resilience, funding, innovation, the launch of the National Volunteering Plan – the breadth of topics was excellent.

I was only there for one day and sadly I didn’t make it to all the sessions I’d originally chosen because I kept meeting people who I knew virtually who then introduced me to other people and before I knew it time had run away and there was a train to catch. But making those new connections and cementing ones only built in pixels was wonderful. I came away reinvigorated and excited to be working in the sector.

I took part in a panel discussion hosted by our good friends Social Good Connect about the power of corporate volunteering. My fellow panellists included Angharad Low, Head of Corporate Partnerships at CHAS and Kate Dixon of the Rock Trust and we heard from Stuart Macdonald, the founder of SmartSTEMS too. I don’t mind admitting that I really enjoy being part of these discussions – it’s nice to offer our learnings from the last two years and I always discover so much more myself. It was enlightening to hear one organisation say that whenever they got volunteers with no landscaping experience turning up to ‘help’ get a garden under control, they ended up having to bring in some professionals in afterward to do it properly!

This is a good example of why skilled volunteering is so important, for both the volunteer and the organisation they’re trying to help. When people step forward with their time, allowing them to use their knowledge and experience is incredibly rewarding for them and far more impactful for the organisations the STA is working with.

Attending the Gathering is also a good example of why networking is so important. We should each recognise it as a skill to be developed, exercised, and nurtured. Making connections not just for ourselves, but for others has a tremendous effect on the ecosystem as a whole – new connections make their way to you, sometimes unexpectedly. Taking 10 minutes to myself while various Gathering sessions were taking place, I sat in a near empty refreshments area, and I got talking with the only other person at the same huge table as me and discovered several opportunities for both her organisation and ours worth exploring. 6 weeks on, I’m still ‘working’ that event, extending my network further, capitalising on opportunities and making important introductions that are not directly of benefit to me but that can help the people being introduced get further in achieving their goals. Suffice to say, I’m looking forward to going back again next year.