To address this, we decided to call CO16, “sustaining the energy”. As well as proving to our doubters who thought that we wouldn’t survive the 12 months after the Programme had ended we asked ourselves collectively, “How do we keep the momentum, and how do we keep continuing to build the network and organisation?”.

This was also the first time that we charged for tickets for the event. Something that we knew would be enormously important in the future if we are going to build something that is self-sustaining. True to our aspirations, the network came together and 80% of the event was funded through ticket sales alone.