Fight for Sight was proud to attend, participate and to be a sponsor of the 2024 Visionary Conference.
By Sarah Kidner, head of communications and external affairs
Fresh back from my first Visionary Conference, I am reflecting on my time at Birmingham’s Aston Conference Centre. The conference started on World Dream Day. Some of the day’s objectives include:
- Unleashing human potential
- Transforming the world
- Making higher dreams come true
- Inspiring, activating, and celebrating the power of ideas, goals, and dreams
I can honestly say that the conference embodied all of these. Opening the conference, Visionary CEO Fiona Sandford cited a quote from Willy Wonka: “We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.” Sandford said: “That’s what you are. You play a part in supporting others to make their music and to realise their dreams. Collectively, this room is the magic wallpaper.”
"You play a part in supporting others to make their music and to realise their dreams. Collectively, this room is the magic wallpaper.”
A brighter future for everyone impacted by vision loss
Visionary is the national membership organisation for local sight loss charities. It aims to help empower these vital charities to be their best. As a funder of social change work, many of Visionary’s members will have received a grant from Fight for Sight, forged from Fight for Sight and Vision Foundation.
This year’s conference was the first we attended under our new brand, Fight for Sight, and we were proud to be one of the conference sponsors. One of the things that runs through our brand is a tone of Informed Optimism; creating a brighter future for everyone impacted by vision loss.
Reflecting on ‘what her dream organisation would be’ Ellie Southwood, our Director of Impact and External Affairs, said: “My dream sight loss organisation is an organisation that can provide tools and mindsets so that anybody who goes through personal experience of vision loss has no additional fear of doing anything while being blind.”
The social change we fund aims to empower those with bright ideas to engender confidence and build connections with others and the world around them.
Eleanor spoke during the day one keynote. She was joined on stage by a stellar panel that also included Fight for Sight trustee Dr Amit Patel, disability rights campaigner, best-selling author, motivational speaker and independent consultant, Fern Lulham, BBC Broadcaster and Producer and James Watson O’Neill OBE, CEO, SignHealth.
Dr Amit Patel spoke about losing his sight overnight. He said: “Charities gave me my confidence back. Since then, I haven’t stopped dreaming. You find a way and learn from your mistakes. “Alongside chasing my dreams, I have met some amazing people.”
Stronger together: shared vision, challenging conversations
The conference was full of amazing people, and a spirit of collaboration, openness and working together struck me from the moment I arrived.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t challenging conversations.
The day one panel discussed the tension between seeking treatments for vision loss and the nuances between that and the right of people who are blind and vision impaired to live an equitable life.
The conversation goes to the core of Fight for Sight’s vision: Save Sight. Change Lives. Our mission is to fund the brilliant minds and bright ideas putting change in sight for everyone impacted by vision loss.
We fund scientific research and social change. With informed optimism, we fund research that helps us better understand, diagnose, prevent, and treat vision loss.
Alongside the work we’re funding into scientific research, we’re also funding social change because people who are blind or vision impaired are more likely to face reduced mental health, wellbeing and confidence, as well as lower levels of financial security.
“I want our sector to be able to hold both things as important,” said Ellie.
Funding from Fight For Sight is a game changer. It means that we can be confident that our services are available to every family touched by Usher Syndrome.
Embracing intersectionality
The panel also discussed the notion of identity. “When other people going through the sight loss journey contact me privately and say that they have to hide it…they put so much energy into living that lie – the small and larger organisations need to be there,” said Dr Amit Patel. “Vision loss doesn’t define me, but you don’t do it alone.”
James Watson O’Neill reflected on the importance of recognising intersectionality: “As a leader, I am trying to remember what’s in the room. We are evolving to welcome the multiplicity of identities. Whether people identify as deaf or black first. I grew up as a closeted gay boy – my identity as a gay man is important to me.”
He added: “We are evolving to welcome the multiplicity of identities. Everyone has a valuable identity – everyone has a story. Everyone has got up with some sort of challenge. We can forget that richness when we work in single conditions.”
It is something that goes to the heart of our social change funding. Fight for Sight is committed to exploring diverse experiences of being blind and vision impaired. We’ve funded research that has highlighted unique experiences of survivors and victims of domestic abuse, experiences of loneliness and isolation and the challenges people face in terms of employment.
Together, we are stronger
In addition, keynote session workshops peppered the conference. One I attended was on the value of Artificial Intelligence to us as charities in our roles.
We discussed the uncomfortable topic of AI replacing us in our roles. Will AI tools that empower us to write for social media replace us? The advice was to treat AI as an ‘enthusiastic intern’ eager to work alongside but needs guidance!
I’m already using AI daily to help me transcribe interview notes and check my grammar—not my forte—to support my curiosity as someone relatively new to the vision loss sector. I’m excited about its potential—we’ve already funded projects that have exploited AI to advance scientific research.
It also has enormous potential for changing the lives of people who are blind and vision impaired. Over breakfast, I was delighted to connect with Julian Garner from TAVIP – we reflected on the advancement of technology from the early days of character recognition, something James was working on as I worked as a technology journalist.
Setting a tone for a brighter future
Fight for Sight’s tone is informed by the statement: “Together, we are bold, tenacious, informed and optimistic” – I’ll keep working on getting my AI tools to reflect that. I know that the projects at the Visionary Conference are all these things.
The Visionary Awards celebrated projects supporting people.
Fight for Sight proudly sponsored the Innovate and Inspire Award. The winner was MyVision Oxfordshire, which delivers walks in nature to encourage connections to nature and community.
Building connections was at the heart of this conference. I was privileged to attend and connect with new people with whom I hope we will continue collaborating.
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