Big Meet: All you need to know!

7th April 2025

Time sure does fly when you’re having fun. We are now just over 2 weeks away from our Big Meet Event and we have some information to share with you to help you get ready!

When is it? Thursday 24th April 2025, from 16:00 to 19:00. We will be starting promptly at 16:00 so we kindly ask you to arrive early, from 15:30 to get signed in, get a drink and grab a seat.

The event is now sold out so expect a busy room! If you have any access requirements that you haven’t already told us about, do send us an email at info@cabad.org.uk and let us know.

Getting there:

The event venue is Manningham Mills Community Centre, Lilycroft Road, Bradford, BD9 5BD. This is an accessible venue and has accessible toilets available.

We encourage you to use public transport or car-share where possible. The 620 bus from Bradford City Centre stops just over the road and other buses are available if you’re able to walk a little bit further.

If you are driving, there is a SIP car park to the side of the building on Patent Street, BD9 5AB that costs £2 for 12 hours of parking. There is also street parking on Patent Street, Heaton Road, Oak Lane and other surrounding streets. Please be mindful of residents when parking. 

Social Media:

We encourage attendees to take lots of photos or videos on the night to share on social media. You can follow us and tag us in posts using the two channels we currently use – Facebook and LinkedIn. Don’t forget to hashtag #VCSEBigMeet 

The food

You will be glad to know we’re doing something a little bit different for our menu. The wonderful Manningham Mills are catering so everything is made, fresh, from scratch, and in-house.

The menu will have a number of options to choose from. All meat is halal, and we have vegetarian/vegan options too. Most meals will be gluten free, dairy free and egg free and these will be clearly labelled so you can make the right choice on the night. Alongside that, we’ll have a range of nibbles, salads and desserts suitable for a range of dietary requirements so nobody will go home hungry!

Our speakers:

We have got five wonderful speakers from three different organisations in store. They will each share what leadership means to them, some of the common challenges we face as leaders, the differences that some groups may experience and give you some tips on overcoming challenges as leaders.

Headline speaker – Anj Handa, Inspiring Women Changemakers.

Anj Handa is the Founder of Inspiring Women Changemakers, an inclusive community of changemakers who stand for fairness and safety for women. As a diversity, equity and inclusion practitioner and Board facilitator, her talks cover good governance and inclusive leadership.

Anj’s previous Board roles include Chair of Freedom Studios in Bradford and Independent Governor and Committee Chair at Leeds Arts University. As such, she belonged to only 1% of Black and brown women in the UK holding Governance roles at this level.

Her work has been recognised in Forbes as one of the 10 Diversity & Inclusion Trailblazers You Need to Get Familiar With, and in the Charity Times 2023 International Women’s Day list for the capacity-building she undertakes with organisations within the charity sector.

Read more about Anj and the work she does.

Speaker 2 – Maleehah Hussain and Malachi Swen.

Our second speakers are a package deal, both representing the Bradford 2025 Youth Panel!

Maleehah is a final year Law student at the University of Bradford. She completed a placement year at the Government Legal Department within the Civil Service. Outside of her studies, she enjoys visiting museums, photography, nature, her faith, fashion and writing poetry. Maleehah has been volunteering on the Youth Panel in Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture since January 2024.

Malachi joined BD25 because, he finds culture to be the backbone of society, without it there’s no substance to a place. Coming from Belfast over a year ago now Bradford has shown that’s it’s a city with a rich historic culture and he wanted to be apart of showcasing it through education and young people because that’s where culture gets kept alive.

Speaker 3 – Andrew Wilson and Dr Tiffany R Holloman, Same Skies Think Tank.

Tiffany is the project manager for Brad-ATTAIN and YCEDE in the Centre for Inclusion and Diversity at the University of Bradford.  She is co-founder and co-director of Same Skies Think Tank in West Yorkshire.  Her think tank allows her to work within the public sector, for example, universities and councils. Whilst academically, she’s manoeuvred from lecturer to professional services.

She is the author of several articles, chapters, as well as a co-editor of two books. Her activism stems from a desire to work with community members in the elevation of human development. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Andrew Wilson experiments with structures to facilitate cooperation between people with different kinds of knowledge, and he has been one of the co-founders and main organisers of para-lab (Manchester, 2017-) and Superposition (Leeds, 2013-2017), both collectives of artists and scientists; The Making Space, a cooperatively run shared workspace in Huddersfield (2013-); Same Skies (West Yorkshire, 2015-) the citizen-led regional democracy network and think tank for West Yorkshire.

In the decade from 2000 Andrew developed platforms for creative and socially valuable uses of mobile technology, with a focus on collaborative participation and tools for grassroots coordination. In 2019 he was the founding director when Same Skies became a think tank, and is currently co-director.

He works part-time as a support worker for people with learning disabilities. See his website and his Instagram for more details.

Our sponsors

We’d like to take a moment to say thank you to our event sponsors for making this whole thing possible.

RBC Brewin Dolphin is one of the UK’s leading providers of bespoke discretionary investment management for charities. We have been supporting charity clients for over 65 years and have a team of 46 specialist charity investment professionals operating out of eight key regional hubs.

Every charity is different and a “one-size-fits-all” approach is rarely the best option. We take the time to understand your unique circumstances, financial objectives, risk appetite and any ethical restrictions to build a portfolio tailored to your specific needs.

Whether you want to invest for income, growth or to secure your charity’s future, we are here to help.

CNet is a charity and company limited by guarantee operating across Bradford and District to support the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE) since 2001.

They specialise in community development, engagement. social research and grant giving.

They have a broad knowledge of local communities and have an extensive network of cross sector partners, relationships and contacts.

Their projects are co-produced with local stakeholders, using an asset based community development approach

From small ideas that make a difference in a single community to big ideas that change the world, Participate supports people and organisations to realise their potential.

They do this by providing support that helps them develop and grow their ideas into sustainable projects and enterprises.