Summit 2024: The Highlights and Key Insights

Croke Park buzzed with activity on 29 May as over 500 delegates gathered for The Wheel's sell-out Summit for charities, community groups and social enterprises.

The annual event is Ireland's largest gathering for the sector, and this year, over 40 speakers took part in two lively plenaries and 12 member-led breakout sessions.

To help you make sense of all the excellent contributions, we have compiled some key speeches from the plenaries and the top insights from each member-led session.

The Plenaries

Our Chair, Vincent Keenan, and our CEO, Ivan Cooper set the scene and outlined the context for the this year's Summit.

Joe O'Brien TD, Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development with special responsibility for Community Development and Charities delivered the opening address. He shared updates on the Charities (Amendment) Bill 2023, SICAP, new funding and other developments.

Dr. Larry O’Connell, Director of the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) spoke to the theme of “Learning from the Past” He gave an enlightening review of social and economic change over the past 50 years and the role of the community and voluntary sector in making that change.

Derek Walker, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales spoke passionately to the second half of our theme: "Looking to the Future". Derek emphasised the importance of long-term planning in policy making,  the role of the community and voluntary sector in promoting future-focused planning, and Ireland's own Commission of Future Generation Bill 2023.

Noeline Blackwell, Human Right Lawyer and former CEO of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, drew on decades of experience for an inspiring speech on the advocacy role of the sector. 

Taoiseach Simon Harris sent a special message to our members to mark The Wheel's 25th anniversary. 

Member-led Parallel Sessions

This year, Summit 2024 included 12 member-led parallel session covering a wide variety of topics, from sustainable funding and legacies, to integration and volunteering. We have the distilled the the insights and take-aways in this blog.