The year’s biggest media industry gathering is to return to London for its 20th anniversary conference with a gala dinner back on the menu.
This year’s Society of Editors Conference will take place at the historic Stationer’s Hall in the heart of the capital on Tuesday 12 November.
The event marks two decades of campaigning to protect and maintain press freedoms in the UK since the SoE was formed from the old Guild of Editors in 1999.
And for the first time since 2016, the conference will include a gala dinner, which is being held specially to mark the anniversary.
Organisers say the theme of the conference will be one of “celebrating the successes of the last 20 years in preserving vital media freedoms, while looking ahead to battles yet to come.”
Details of speakers and panel discussions will be announced over the coming weeks
Executive director Ian Murray said: “Although there is always more to be done to protect our vital free media in the UK, we can take pride in the role the Society has played in the two decades since it was created.
“That’s why this year’s conference will be celebrating the UK’s media and its role in protecting our vibrant democracy and freedoms while looking ahead to the future.
“We have decided to return to the capital and, mindful of time pressures, keep the conference to a one day event followed by a reception and gala dinner to mark our anniversary.
“The day will be packed with lively debate, keynote speakers and truly informative and useful sessions making it as usual the must-attend event for the industry.
“Stationers’ Hall is the spiritual home of the media with its five hundred years of history and it is fitting we are holding our conference and gala dinner there where so much history has been made.
“The venue does mean spaces are limited, both for the conference and the dinner, so I would advise delegates to book early and make use of the early bird discount of course.”
To book a place, contact Angela Upton at [email protected]. Early bird discounts of £50 are available on bookings before 5 September.
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at
Day conference plus gala dinner is £419 + VAT (members) or £494 + VAT (non-members), or save £120 or £145 respectively by giving the dinner a miss. In an age of increasing industry belt-tightening, how many editors can justify billing their employers to attend this occasion? Put bluntly, that’s quite a few adverts sold or newspapers bought per person attending.
Report this comment
Above figures are without the early-bird discount, but you get my point.
Report this comment
What’s the saying’ Fiddling while Rome burns’
A costly beano from an industry in crisis and happening while the core products continue in free fall,if they have money to burn how about passing it down the line to the many overworked and under appreciated staff on the books?
I’ll also bet there will be a herd of elephants in the room while they talk about anything and everything but the true state of their titles and groups and futures.
Sorry but with so few real editors left in the regional press this tired old event has become less relevant than ever and must be on its last legs.
Report this comment
“celebrating the successes of the last 20 years…”
…whilst ignoring the real facts of an industry in almost total collapse
talk about burying your head in the sand
It beggars belief, it really does
Report this comment
This and the pevious comment by ‘Phillip’ are both very unfair on the Society of Editors in my view. Its role is primarily that of a lobbying organisation in respect of press freedom issues, as opposed to a marketing body for the newspaper industry, and in that role it has been very successful. For staving off the threat of state regulation of the press if nothing else, at a time when very influential voices at Westminster were pushing for that, the Society deserves the gratitude of all journalists.
Report this comment