As you will know the Coronavirus is at the forefront of many minds at the moment and you may be aware that the Kents Hill Conference Centre where the SLG conference is due to be held was requisitioned by the Government and has had the 120 people from the last plane evacuated from Wuhan placed in quarantine there. Although none of them tested positive at the time so the risk was very low, we had a number of people who had booked or were thinking of booking, express their concerns about attending because of this, as well as comments from some exhibitors and speakers. At the time we also didn’t know what impact it might have on Kents Hill if someone tested positive during the quarantine period so the potential impact on the SLG conference was potentially very high.

At our recent SLG committee meeting, we discussed this in some depth and felt that although the risk was low, safety was our biggest priority and we needed to recognise the concerns of all those who might be attending as delegates, speakers, sponsors and exhibitors. We have therefore made the decision to postpone the SLG conference until later in the year.  We are provisionally looking at the weekend of October 16^th – 18^th but are waiting for the Conference Centre to confirm that all the requirements we have for our conference can be met that weekend and we will confirm those dates as soon as the Conference Centre confirms.  As it happens we have since been notified that none of the quarantined people at Kents Hill came down with the virus and all have been released from quarantine and the conference centre is to be thoroughly deep cleaned  and re-open for business soon, but having made the decision and started to notify people, we feel postponing until later in the year is the best option for us. Bookings for the new dates will open as soon as the new dates are confirmed. If you have already booked, please let Karen Usher know if you would like your booking transferred to the new dates, once they are confirmed. If you have any questions or queries please contact Annie Everall (Sponsorship, Speakers, Exhibition) annie@alannie.demon.co.uk  or Karen Usher (Delegate Bookings) karen@musher.demon.co.uk  Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause you

Caroline Roche & Annie Everall

Chair, SLG & Conference & Training Manager, SLG