Following the great success of our first fully residential conference at Northampton in September 2023, your Conference Committee is keen to build on the opportunities it provided for strengthening the FMA Community. We also want to ensure that conferences are accessible to as many members as possible over a two-three year period, and to shift the main conference away from the busy conference and training season in September/ October.

As we explained in our email of 1 February, our 2024 conference will be a one-day on-line conference, incorporating a short AGM, on Wednesday 25 September. We would love to see as many of you as possible, so please save the date. An advantage of an on-line conference, aside from accessibility, is that it offers the opportunity to incorporate speakers from further afield, both live and pre-recorded. On this one occasion, the price for members is being subsidised by FMA so that the price should not be off-putting for anyone.

Our theme is “exploring a gender agenda,” and it is the start of a conversation around diversity, inclusivity, community and sustainability that will take place across different platforms and training events, culminating in our 2025 conference, residential in-person, on 14-15 May 2025.

The John Cornwell presentation will be delivered by Nurit Zubery, Family Dispute Provider and Academic in New Zealand, on how different gender behaviours present in mediation. There will also be presentations and on-line workshops on gender and abuse, an introduction to conversations about transgender participants in mediation, and on transgender issues and young people.

The day will last from 9.45 – 4.30, with breaks and opportunities for work in groups, and plenty of additional material to watch in advance of or following the conference.

We look forward to seeing you there!