Events

Community remains central to our identity as a membership organisation. Our collective commitment to achieving shared goals strengthens our global community, which encompasses our customers and international team. Events serve as a key way in which we connect with existing and potential members, sharing updates, industry insights and stories of our impact.

Annual General Meeting

The 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM), led by Chair Dr Yvonne Gale, was held online with 115 members attending.  While voting participation decreased to 913 from 1,003 in 2023, we maintained strong digital engagement with 342 online votes, representing 37% of total votes compared with 41% the previous year.

The following comments are a selection taken from online feedback forms provided to members:

“Thank you for an excellently presented AGM and thank you for the excellent Annual Reports sent before the AGM.  I'm proud to be a member of Shared Interest.”

“I thought the whole meeting was very well presented, very professional, clear and inspiring. Thank you to everyone involved for making it easy to follow and understand.”

Supporter Events

UK regional supporter events demonstrated strong engagement with 171 attendees across three locations. Events featured senior management representation and guest speakers including Emily Pearce, Senior Sustainable Sourcing & International Development Manager from Co-op (Manchester), Joanna Abena Fianu from British Association of Fair Trade Shops (BAFTS) (Durham), and Liberation Foods Managing Director Dan Binks (Bristol). 

Members of Council and our Board were also present together with a virtual link with overseas colleagues at each event.  Over 50% of attendees were first-time participants, with all respondents indicating satisfaction with content delivery and expressing interest in future events.

Comments on what attendees enjoyed or why they attended included: 

“To gain a larger understanding of Shared Interest and the people they help throughout the world.”

“To find out more about the organisation with a possible new increase of our investment.”

“Had never been. Curious. Very pleased to now be better informed.”

Fairtrade Fortnight

During Fairtrade Fortnight, we hosted two virtual events, which attracted 213 members. The events focused on our impact case studies which were completed in 2023 featuring CAYAT an Ivorian cocoa customer and EDUCE, a Mexican beekeeping co-operative.

Feedback from members included:

“To hear one of the women saying that she now knows her true value - that moved me to tears. These projects are clearly so good for the esteem of both women and men. This is fabulous work. Although the magazine is good, and I do read it, this webinar just brings it all to life. Thank you.”

Click here to read the full Social Accounts document.