Marching Towards The Olympics - 26th Jan 08 

National Conference for Marching Band, Show Band, Drum Corps and Guard Leaders, instructors and supporters organised by British Federation of Youth Marching Band Organisations.

Venue: Braunstone Civic Centre, Leicester. 11.00 am to 3.30 pm

The Cultural Olympiad - August 2008 to August 2012
The Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012

KEY NOTE SPEAKERS INCLUDE
David Sulkin, London based Director of Policy and Programmes for Youth Music, and MICHAEL McKEEVER, Headteacher of Trinity School. The Cultural Olympiad team are still appointing personnel and we hope to have the name of their representative during December.

The Federation and its member organisations believe that the Cultural Olympiad offers the whole activity a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to create a lasting post-2012 legacy of more young people performing in more marching bands. This will only happen if we can engage bands in actively participating - locally, regionally and nationally - in a four year development strategy, the seeds of which will be planted at this Conference. On behalf of the activity the Federation was a pre-bid supporter of the London Olympics and has subsequently regularly communicated with the growing organising team. We attended the July 2007 London Briefing and were one of just five listed national music organisations within the prominent ‘Youth Music’ presentation at this Cultural Olympiad launch. This Conference could be very important for the future of our unique activity. 

Conference Programme
Five keynote speakers from Education, The Cultural Olympiad and from Youth Music will give short topic leads. There will be three periods for discussion during the day, when delegates will meet in small groups and provide feedback to support member organisations in formulating a final draft of the whole activity’s 2008 – 2012 development strategy.

1.“It don’t mean a thing (if we aint got that swing)”
(Duke Ellington / Irving Mills) 
Building on our strengths

2.“Another Brick in the Wall” (Pink Floyd / Waters) 
Working with, and for, schools and colleges. 
(Ofsted will now also judge schools on their performance in promoting social cohesion) 

3.“With a little help from our Friends”
( Beatles / Lennon & McCartney) 
Who can we get help from to achieve our goals? 

4.“All the kids began to march …” 
(The Music Man - 76 Trombones/ M Wilson)
Marching Towards the Olympics. The Cultural Olympiad 2008 – 2012 and its legacy. 
What we can offer and what we can gain. 

5.“Let the good times roll” 
(Ray Charles/Theard-Moove) 
Unlocking the key to a whole activity development strategy 

A light sandwich lunch will be provided. The Conference will close at 3.45pm. The Federation reserves the right to adjust the programme should it be beneficial to delegates to do so.

PLEASE BOOK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BUT NO LATER THAN DECEMBER 31st SO THE FEDERATION CAN MAKE SUITABLE ARRANGEMENTS. BOOKINGS CANNOT BE ACCEPTED AFTER JANUARY 14th.
The Conference welcomes bookings from band leaders, instructors and supporters. When booking please advise full names of all delegates with the emails or postal addresses of each person. Please also state any special dietry requirements.

Send bookings to The BFYMBO, PO Box 141, Eastleigh, Hampshire SO53 3WS or mail to marchbands@aol.com - http://www.marchingbands.org.uk