IDPE 2025 Annual Conference venue: Celtic Manor Resort, Newport

At a time when schools are navigating the pressures of fee-dependency and stretched resources, the IDPE annual conference offers a vital opportunity to connect with peers, share experiences, and explore creative solutions together. 

Through informative and interactive sessions led by experienced development professionals and distinguished guest speakers, you'll learn how to make the most of your team's expertise, resources, and strategies to build lasting relationships and grow support for your school. Whether your focus is fundraising or engagement, the conference will equip you with practical insights and fresh ideas to drive meaningful impact.


"A powerful couple of days not only getting the time to chat with peers from across the sector but being inspired with lots of incredible ideas from the vast range of sessions. Our notebooks came away brimming and I have already discussed some ideas with Senior Leadership."

IDPE 2024 Annual Conference delegate


What's new for 2025?

The IDPE 2025 Annual Conference will be held at the Celtic Manor Resort. This larger venue will provide greater diversity of and capacity for sessions. New for 2025, enhance your experience in our Skills lab, where you can gain technical skills and practical support from IDPE partners in the Exhibition Hall. Engage in interactive workshops that prioritise hands-on learning, role play, and minimal screen time. Dive into masterclass sessions led by top industry experts, offering actionable strategies and advanced insights. Take advantage of embedded networking opportunities throughout the main programme, including speed networking and specialist peer group forums. Additionally, on Tuesday afternoon, access dedicated sessions tailored for specific school types, including a state school symposium.

2025 session types

This year's session types provide more opportunities for networking with and learning from other development professionals:

Horizon

Step outside your comfort zone and explore the emerging trends in the wider school and fundraising sectors

Listen, learn and share workshop

Deep-dive into a specific area of development and workshop ideas with peers

Masterclass

Gain actionable strategies and advanced insights from top industry experts

Personal effectiveness

Develop the personal skills you need to be an effective schools' development professional

Peer group forum

Share experiences and learnings with colleagues in similar schools / roles

Plenary panel

Join fellow delegates to hear our expert panel discuss prominent issues facing the sector

Roundtable discussions

An opportunity to discuss specific topics with our partners

Skills lab

Gain technical skills and practical support from IDPE partners

State school symposium

Discuss insights and opportunities for fundraising and engagement in state schools

Steps for success

Explore successful approaches and step-by-step guidance for realising your development goals

Joining us for the first-time?

We know that coming to conference for the first time and not knowing anyone can be a daunting experience. To support you in making the most of your conference experience and building your networks, you'll be invited to attend our networking sessions for those new to conference (or with less development experience), where you will be introduced to our conference volunteers (committee members, regional vice presidents and trustees), who will be a friendly face to help set you on your own networking path.

  Sponsored by  


"You have created such a nurturing environment which I felt in spades as a complete newcomer to the sector last year."

IDPE 2024 Annual Conference delegate


IDPE and AMCIS conferences

We were delighted that moving our annual conference forward to May has enabled more delegates to attend in recent years. However, during this month there are limited scheduling options owing to the bank holidays and half term break. As such, unfortunately the annual conferences for AMCIS and IDPE will once again be held on the same dates in 2025. We recognise that for a small group of our joint members, this will mean that they will have to choose between conferences and we apologise for any inconvenience this causes.