Events and Conferences
Below is a list of important diary dates happening within the play sector. It would be very wise indeed to check any
details before making firm plans as we are only as good as the information supplied to us! If you wish to add to or
amend this list then please contact us.
2010
Nationwide, United Kingdom
National Playday 2010 - Our place
The Playday 2010 campaign theme will be Our place. The Our place campaign puts children at the heart of our
communities, and asks everyone, young and old, to help create better places for all of us to live and play. The campaign
will launch in the New Year, and will build up to Playday on Wednesday 4 August. From coordinating a Playday event to
running a local campaign, there's loads of ways you can get involved to bring your local community together through play.
W: www.playday.org.uk
Staffordshire, United Kingdom
Beauty of Play: 'The Everydayness of Play'
A conference with a difference; two days of playful discussion about play and playwork in the open air, the
Beauty of Play has been running since 2003. Themes have covered Beauty, Playing with Feeling, The Senses,
The Elements, Creativity and Wildness.
BoP attracts a broad range of speakers, some first timers, many published authors and playwork theorists.
This year there will be Perry Else, Julia Sexton, Stuart Lester, John Fitzpatrick, Bridget Handscomb, Susie Dadd,
Tanya Harrison, Tony Delahoy, Liam Delahoy, Jacky Kilvington, Heather Knight, Lily Horseman, Maggie Fearn,
Sian Cornelius, Mark Sainsbury, Arthur Battram, Matt Laurie, and The Team from Meynell Games.
W: www.ludemos.co.uk
Sheffield, United Kingdom
Community spirit - Bringing people together through play
Play England and Yorkshire Play are hosting a joint event that focuses on the notion of community
and the need to create a sense of pride, ownership and community spirit within our neighbourhoods to create
safer, more child friendly environments for children to play. Through strategic and practical workshops this
event will focus on community safety, engagement, inclusion, creating playful environments and funding advice
for community groups.
W: www.playengland.org.uk/yorkshirehumber
Karlstad, Sweden
Create Inspiring Playgrounds: IPA Sweden and IPA World Conference
This conference focuses on parks or playgrounds, which employ play workers or other adults, and on facilities
that offer leisure opportunities to older children and to young teenagers. In Sweden the expression "park play"
or "construction play" is used - in other countries they are called youth or adventure playgrounds or in Denmark
are simply described as "junk playgrounds".
W: www.ipakarlstad.se
Edinburgh, Scotland
Places and Spaces: Creating Child-Friendly Communities: Play Scotland Annual Conference
Speakers: Dr Harry Burns, Chief Medical Officer; Prof Frank Furedi; Janette Fich Jesperson, Kompan; Matthew
King, Child Friendly Initiatives, UNICEF and Fergus Storrier, Youth Justice, Tayide Police.
W: www.playscotland.org
Edinburgh, Scotland
Making Space 2010: architecture and design for children and young people
This international conference will include two days of presentations, and study visits to centres of excellence
across the country, and will encourage debate and stimulate discussion on promoting innovative design, allowing
architects, planners and those working with young people in a variety of settings to share ideas and challenge
conventional architectural approaches. Will also look at the vision and delivery of Scotland's Building Better
Schools document and School Estate Strategy.
W: www.childreninscotland.org.uk
University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom
Design for Play in 1930s Britain
Organised by Greenwich Network for the Study of Play and Recreation, this seminar will be led by Alan Powers,
Professor of Architecture and Cultural History, who has written extensively on children's play spaces and toys.
E: Dr Mary Clare Martin
Florence, Italy
Child in the City
The fifth Child in the City conference will further build on the ideas of the former events with themes like
children's participation, space for children, children's mobility and assessment tools. It will also widen
the scope to include child poverty issues.
W: www.childinthecity.com
Bristol, United Kingdom
NCMA National Conference
NCMA has been running an Annual Conference for over 10 years. For many childminders and nannies, NCMA's Annual
Conference is a highlight of their year. This November, several hundred childcare professionals will meet at the
Royal Marriot Hotel in Bristol.
W: www.ncma.org.uk
2011
Eastbourne, United Kingdom
National Playwork Conference
Date for your diary - details soon!
W: www.meynellgames.org.uk
W: www.playworkconferences.org.uk/
University of Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
Philosophy at Play Conference: First Call for Papers
This will be an inter-disciplinary conference focusing on philosophical aspects of play.
The deadline for the submission of a 300-500 word abstract is the 11 October 2010. Notifications of
acceptance/rejection will be sent by 30 November 2010. The full programme will be announced in January 2011.
Many philosophers have had something to say about play, and their ideas are as diverse and contradictory
as play itself. Variations operate across time (ancient, modern and postmodern), place ('Eastern' and 'Western'
philosophies and points in between) and discipline (epistemology, ethics, metaphysics and so on). Yet rarely are
the names or work of key thinkers evident in policy or practitioner discussions about play. This conference aims
to build disciplinary and paradigmatic bridges between scholars of philosophy and scholars of play, particularly
children's play. Papers might include, but are not limited to:
- Philosophers on play
- Play in philosophy: ancient, modern and postmodern
- Play and aesthetics
- Play and power
- Play and freedom
- Play, space and time
- The dialectics of play
- Play, ethics and morality
- Game studies
- Philosophy of play as applied philosophy
- Philosophy of playwork
- Political philosophy, childhood and play
Please email abstracts.
More information about the conference, including cost, venue and accommodation, will be provided at a later date.
E: Click or hover here for
email address for further information or if you have any questions.
Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester, New York, USA
37th Annual International Conference
The Association for the Study of Play (TASP)
Theme to be announced. More details to follow.
W: www.tasplay.org
Cardiff City Hall, Wales
Playing into the Future - surviving and thriving
International Play Association (IPA)
How do we create a future where playing is valued and where every country and neighbourhood upholds all children's
right to time, freedom and a safe enough environment for playing in their own way?
The 18th conference of the International Play Association offers four days to share evidence, experience and
examples of good practice with colleagues from around the world. Contributions are welcomed from a range of
disciplines and policy backgrounds that have an interest in, or an impact on, playing children and young people
- for
example, education, health, play provision, youth provision, urban design, and planning.
For more details and first call for abstracts (1 June 2010, deadline 1 November 2010) - download pdf here.
W: www.ipaworld.org
W: www.playwales.org.uk
W: www.facebook.com
2012
Tallin, Estonia
26th World Play Conference
International Council for Children's Play (ICCP)
The next conference will be in Tallin, Estonia in July 2012 - details to be announced shortly.
W: www.iccp-play.org
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