GA Conference 2026 #1: Day 1

The 2026 GA Conference was held at Sheffield College - a departure from the usual venue at Sheffield Hallam University. This is a short 10 minute walk from the railway station - going out the back entrance. 

I drove up from Norfolk and immediately started seeing people I knew: former work colleagues, present work colleagues, Steve Brace the GA CEO and exhibitors from various publishers and organisations I've worked with over the years. 

The weather was warming up very quickly!

It was good to see the Collins stand had a prominent display of our Discover Geography books, and also the iGCSE Geography book that I was series editor for which was published last March. There was some publicity and order forms for the books as well, so hopefully they will be heading into classrooms soon. 

The Rayburn Tours gang were there with lots of free posters. 

After some chats it was out for the "long standing members" meal, which I am invited to each year. This time we had a minibus to take us to the restaurant in the Winter Gardens, opposite the Crucible Theatre, which was getting prepared for the World Championship Snooker there, starting next weekend. It was a lovely meal and there were 8 former GA Presidents sat at the table, and some other guests and people. All the Presidents are featured on the GA Presidents blog of course. 

One idea I had is to revisit those I can and ask them for an update perhaps.

I had the chance to catch up with several people I only see at this event.

Back to the conference venue, where I had a chat about the National Festival of Fieldwork in June.

I then went to check-in to my hotel and came back via the Graves Gallery and Winter Gardens and some light shopping.

The GA Awards went well. It was good to see David Gardner received the Honorary Membership.

Time for Geography went away with a whole host of Silver Awards.

A Geography Champion award went to Mark and Jay the hosts of the Map Men YouTube Channel, which has over 1.7 million subscribers and authors of the book 'This Way Up' which I read towards the end of last year, who were sat in front of me.

Christine Speak RIP

In this blog, I have tried to feature people who may not have had the same public profile as others, but who in their own way were particularly supportive of the Geographical Association.

The Autumn 2025 issue of GA Magazine featured an appreciation for the memory of Christine Speak, a former chair of the GA's International Committee, active in Hong Kong, author of articles for GA journals and a long standing member of the association.

It also included a link to a video with Christine, which can be viewed on this link.

Embedding not permitted...

GA Conference 2025 - a flying visit

I was only due to be at the GA Conference for one day, which meant an early start for the drive over to Oxford from Norfolk. It's a real cross-country faff. Luckily I'd made some arrangements for parking which was easy enough to reach and close to the main social event of the trip.

I was there for the Long Standing members meal. This is an annual lunch which is paid for by a previous member which allows those who are going along to the conference to meet up with former Presidents of the Association and network.

Here's a picture taken at the restaurant where the meal was held. The food was delicious. There are quite a few former Presidents in the image. How many can you name?

After that, it was a taxi up to Oxford Brookes University: the conference venue.

I didn't plan to attend any sessions other than one... and I arrived too late for that one, but managed to speak to David Lambert who was presenting it.

What I really wanted to do was spend the four hours-ish I had there to catch up with as many people as possible. I managed to catch up with lots of former GA colleagues and the team that helped me when I was President, and current RGS colleagues, Primary legends such as Sharon Witt, Anthony Barlow, Stephen Scoffham and Steve Rawlinson and many more besides. Particularly nice to chat to John Wilkinson and David Balderstone, Andrew Lee and Hermione Miao. 

I also met up with Tom Collins from the Environment Agency who I worked with on a forthcoming project for over a year but had never met in person, and folks from various publishers and lovely to see Cath Rule from Rayburn Tours as well.

There were at least 20 other people I chatted to, you know who you are - they include teachers, publishers and other geographers :)

After that, I got the bus back into the centre, and got off outside Christ Church College, where the GA began in 1893, and then to the Rose and Crown where I had a drink and chat with Phil from Wychwood School, who had kindly provided the parking place for me. Good to catch up and have a drink before the return journey which was going well until I found that the A47 was closed overnight... ideal...

Next year is Sheffield. I look forward to seeing what the venue is along with theme etc.

A few things from the tweets:

Some videos on GIS.

And also a tree carbon calculator.

This is my tree Carbon calculator that I shared at my talk. #GAConf25 🌳
Have a go! Good for in the field crunching. https://t.co/3KmZi3jm3D pic.twitter.com/Y1kDvk6xKM

— TeachGeogs 🌍 (@TeachGeogs) April 17, 2025

A reminder of Teal Tool.

And this session looked really good... 

#ConnectedGeographies epitomised by a fascinating live link up with Alex of @detroitography from the USA-Canada border in @alicelouisegrif's session 'Moving beyond the Drosscape: insider perspectives on Detroit' @The_GA #GAConf25
e.g. hand model of #HubAndSpoke urban morphology pic.twitter.com/ozWlvBW78L

— BC (@mildthing99) April 17, 2025

Check out Detroitography.

Reminds me of Rebecca Solnit's three American atlas projects, which I have copies of.

GA Conference 2024

The 2024 GA Conference is underway at the University of Manchester with a theme of 'Geography for Everyone' proposed by President Denise Freeman. This is the first I've missed for almost twenty years, due to train strikes and other issues.

The #GAConf24 long-standing members & Past Presidents’ lunch is in full swing. Can you spot your geography heroes? pic.twitter.com/QbXYDiYkLW

— Geographical Association (@The_GA) April 5, 2024

Congratulations to Catherine Owen, who was revealead as the President for 2025-6. She will appear on this blog in due course.

So relieved to be able to tell people about this! So happy to have been elected to serve the amazing @The_GA in this way. 🌎 https://t.co/B7k5SV5zCd

— Catherine Owen (@GeogMum) April 4, 2024

Alun Morgan gave this year's Rex Walford Memorial Lecture 

The Rex Walford lecture 2024
Great to hear Alun Morgan#GAConf24@The_GA pic.twitter.com/memu6jF0Wi

— Geography Primary & Early Years Committee @The_GA (@EYPPC_GA) April 5, 2024

We will also be back in Oxford in 2025 at Oxford Brookes University.

Image: Denise Freeman

Past Presidents' reception

For some time, there was a tradition of Past Presidents and Long standing members' receptions to be held at the GA Conference. I have been present at one of these some years ago, well before the idea for this blog came about.

While down in the GA archives at 160 Solly Street, I came across a photo album. There were several pictures from the 1993 Centenary conference meeting in there. Here are a few of them.

Frances Soar gave me some further information on the context.

"This is a Past Presidents' reception at Sheffield in 1993, I think, as Simon Catling was President at the time. It could be the first time we had run a special reception for Past Presidents.  We introduced it in response to comments that Past Presidents (and other long serving members) would welcome a chance for a get together with their contemporaries rather than have to try and find them amongst all the other attendees, given that the 'sessions' were no longer their main aim in coming to Conference."

In the top image, Julia Legg - a GA administrator - is far left.

Frances also told me that: 

"Long serving GA staff member Margaret Vickers (standing, centre). Margaret used to do all the conference booking administration. She retired when we moved to Solly Street."

 

On the bottom images, Simon Catling on the far right is chatting to the guests.

Julia Legg is just behind Simon.

I can see Bill Mead in the background chatting to someone who may be Molly Long.

Thanks to Julia Legg, via Frances Soar for providing further details of the lady in the blue dress in both photos:

The person in the corner, full face, is Mary Ellis, who was Assistant Editor ( I think that was her job title) for 'Geography' for many years and came into Fulwood Road regularly. I think her husband was Ronald Ellis and he may too have been someone involved with geography and possibly the GA - maybe Hon. Secretary?

Mary Ellis later received Honorary Membership from former President Wendy Morgan.

If anyone can identify any other people, please let me know.