Young people helping to support success at the GM Moving Conference 2025

By GM Moving | 10 July 2025 | TAGS: Conference, Active Lives, Greater Manchester, Salford, "event", cyp

The GM Moving Conference 2025 took place on 12 May at the stunning Lowry Theatre in Salford Quays. The event brought together changemakers from across Greater Manchester to explore the future of physical activity, community wellbeing, and inclusive movement. As always, the Conference offered a platform to share ideas, build partnerships and celebrate the collective ambition of making movement a way of life for all.

But beyond the main stage, a different kind of energy helped bring the day to life, thanks to the incredible efforts of young volunteers from across the region.

UTC Media

This year, GM Moving partnered with UTC Media, a unique, technical and creative college for 14-18 year olds, to offer volunteering opportunities in behind-the-scenes roles they provided the live stream for hundreds more people to watch the event. Working closely with technical teams in a live theatre setting gave them valuable hands-on experience in real-world production environments.

You can see the work from UTC students by watching back some of the Conference sessions:

• Opening plenary
• Shifting culture and systems to support active lives for all
• Unlocking sports potential: Tackling inequalities and growing participation

BCOMS

At the same time, a small team of volunteer media students from BCOMS took on the role of roving interviewers, capturing the voices, thoughts and emotions of attendees throughout the day. BCOMS is the Black Collective Of Media in Sport, a black-led organisation that works to help diversify UK Sports Media, leading the next generation of young talent to experience media opportunities at the highest level.

Armed with cameras, microphones and curiosity, the media students helped document the atmosphere and stories of the event, going beyond the headlines to highlight the people behind the movement. Bix Williams, studying in Salford, managed to get some great interviews and really capture the positive energy of the day. Check out his video here:

https://youtu.be/tyGLQvdUEOQ?si=zBaT3UFOmg_fjqKW

Opportunities for inclusion and inspiration

For GM Moving, these collaborations were about more than running a great conference. It was a chance to create opportunities for young people to learn, contribute and grow. By involving emerging talent in meaningful roles, the organisation helped them gain confidence and experience in a professional setting.

Inspiring change begins with inclusion, and this year’s conference showed just how powerful it can be when young people are given the chance to be part of the story.

These were not the only young people involved in the event this year. We worked hard to ensure a young person’s voice was present throughout the event across the workshops. We will share more on this in a future article.