The annual Housing LIN conference is always fully subscribed and this year’s event, held on Friday 11th March, was one of the best so far.

Shaun Ley, from BBC World at One, is a great enabler and the first three speakers, Anna Dixon (CEO, Centre for Ageing Better) John Galvin (CEO, Elderly Accommodation Counsel) and Tom McPhail (Head of Pensions Research, Lansdown) were all fantastic. I expected to find the first two interesting but have to confess that the third took me pleasantly by surprise. I love my work as Head of Housing Research and like to see companies dedicate resources to really thinking about what they do, as well as getting on with what they do.

The keynote addresses were also very good. Bruce Moore (CEO, Housing and Care 21) who stepped into the hole left by Brandon Lewis who pulled out late in the day, was more entertaining than any Housing Minister is ever likely to be, and Dr Nicola Millard (ex-‘Futurologist’ and now Head of Customer Insight and Futures, BT Technology) was dazzling. I wonder where Jeremy Porteus (the ever-affable Director of the Housing LIN) found her?