What a week to be in Westminster!
As Parliament begins its summer recess at the end of this week, we are reflecting on a particularly busy few weeks providing support for membership organisation, South East Councils.
South East Councils (SEC) is a cross-party organisation which works to ensure the South East of England region is a great place to live, work and do business. Filigree was brought on board last year to help raise the profile of SECamongst decision makers and influencers as well as the local media.
Alongside this media and communications support we also assist with campaigns, policy and event facilitation and at the beginning of the month helped SEC host two events in Westminster.
On the first Tuesday in July we were in Parliament for the AGM, presenting an update on our communications and media work to SEC members. We then headed downstairs and helped to facilitate the Parliamentary Reception. It was fantastic to be back hosting in-person events and great to see so many MPs, councillors and other stakeholders from the region. Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid even had the decency to wait until our event was over before handing in their resignations and diverting the entire country’s press to Westminster…
A mere 48 hours and 50+ resignations later ( including one from the Prime Minister) we were back in Westminster, this time for the London and Wider South East Conference. The event was co-hosted alongside East of England LGA, the GLA and London Councils and brought together local authorities from across the regions to discuss topics such as collaborating on climate change and meeting spatial planning challenges.
Teams and Zoom may have served us well over the pandemic but there is really nothing like getting people in a room together if you really want to get things moving and encourage collaboration. Especially if that room happens to be located in sunny Westminster! Read more about our work with South East Councils here.