FLIPIM 2026 - THE Grassroots Regeneration Conference

Join us for a day of ideas, panels, and workshops, and we’ll hear from lesser heard voices alongside those who hold power and influence.
About this Event

FLIPIM 2026: THE Grassroots Regeneration Conference

Inspiration | Activism | Connection

24th September 2026

It’s 2026 and FLIPIM is back!

For this year's edition the grassroots are gathering in Birkenhead to flip the conversation on regeneration.

Community-led solutions are appearing in government policy as a way to turn around decades of decline in our neighbourhoods. The challenge now lies in execution; how can we leverage opportunities like Pride in Place to maximise the benefits for the areas where we live, work and play.

Join us for a day of ideas, panels, and workshops, and we’ll hear from lesser heard voices alongside those who hold power and influence, to ensure the future of our places can be built by everyone.

5 Core Themes for 2026

This year, we are expanding the agenda to dive deeper into the key pillars of community ownership and local resilience. Across our keynotes, panels, and interactive workshops, we will explore:

• Housing: Securing genuinely affordable homes, resident-led housing models, and community land trusts.
• Money: Exploring community wealth building, local investment vehicles, and keeping economic value within our neighbourhoods.
• Culture, Leisure & Hospitality: Unlocking creative spaces, preserving independent venues, and reclaiming community-owned pubs, hubs, and social spaces as catalysts for local change.
• Pride in Place: Ensuring local people have genuine agency, power, and ownership over their public spaces and surroundings.
• Regeneration, High Street & Heritage: Transforming vacant buildings, protecting local history, and reviving town centres through grassroots action.

Making "Pride in Place" Real

We have a historic opportunity to show what happens when investment is met with community agency. Pride in Place will invest £5 billion over 20 years in 339 places creating the chance to make this happen.

Birkenhead finds itself a national "trailblazer" for the government’s programme. We know that true "Pride in Place" isn't just about a new coat of paint; it’s about who owns the assets and who makes the decisions. The data shows that the grassroots approach can be transformative:

• Community-led businesses and assets currently boast a 94% long-term survival rate, providing the stability our high streets desperately need.
• Research confirms that resident-led regeneration doubles local business growth in disadvantaged areas compared to top-down models.
• Research by Power to Change shows that community owned assets contribute £220 million to the UK economy, with 56p of every £1 they spend staying in the local economy

Let’s Take Action!

FLIPIM 26 combines high-level insights with hands-on workshops. Our schedule is designed to move from big-picture thinking to practical next steps.

• Keynotes & Panels: We’ll host deep-dive conversations with policymakers, urbanists, and community leaders on the regeneration landscape.
• THE FLIP: The Flip turns audience members into active collaborators. Directly following each panel, delegates move from listening to doing—taking the ideas presented on stage and immediately applying them through facilitated workshops, live brainstorming, dynamic debate, and hands-on problem-solving. It is where passive insight becomes collective action.
• Time With Your Peers: Connect with a national network of people for radical honesty and shared expertise.

Join Us

If you believe that regeneration is most successful when it is built with communities, FLIPIM is for you. Whether you’re a local resident, housing activist, or simply looking for the "how-to" of grassroots power, we’ll see you in Birkenhead.

Tickets will include refreshments & food.

Our concession access tickets have been sponsored by UCL

Agenda

🕑: 09:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Registration, Arrival, Networking & Coffee

Info: Location: Make Hamilton

🕑: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Opening Address

Info: Location: Future Yard

🕑: 11:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Panel: Highstreet Innovators + Flip
Host: Kate McKenzie - Power to Change

Info: Location: Wish Upon a Party, Part of the Highstreet and Heritage Theme

🕑: 11:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Panel: Peer to Peer Learning + Flip
Host: Professor John Tomaney - UCL

Info: Location: Magenta Living, Part of Pride in Place theme

🕑: 12:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Lunch

Info: Location: Make Hamilton, Lunch Provided

🕑: 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
In Conversation with Sacha Lord
Host: Sacha Lord

Info: Location: Joy

🕑: 01:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Panel: Culture-led Regeneration + Flip
Host: Kirsten Little - Make CIC

Info: Location: Future Yard, Part of the Culture, leisure, hospitality theme

🕑: 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Panel: Community Housing Revolution
Host: Emma Widger - Wirral Community Advocates

Info: Location: Magenta Living

🕑: 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Panel: Building a New Economy + Flip
Host: Erika Rushton - Kindred

Info: Location: Joy

🕑: 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Panel: Organising for Access + Flip
Host: Ian Harvey - Institute of Place Management

Info: Location: Wish Upon a Party, Part of Highstreet and Heritage theme

🕑: 03:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Panel: Hospitality-led Regeneration + Flip
Host: Golfo Migos - Indigo Cafe

Info: Location: Future Yard, Part of Culture, leisure, hospitality theme

🕑: 03:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Panel: Communities working with local authorities + Flip
Host: Naomi Rubbra - Footwork

Info: Location: Magenta Living, Part of the Pride in Place Theme