Following on from the success of National Conveyancing Week 2023, organisers Rob Hailstone (Bold Legal Group) and David Opie (Today’s Media) have confirmed plans for a 2024 event between 11th and 15th March 2024. The week will again coincide with one of the biggest events on the conveyancing calendar, The British Conveyancing Awards 2024 which will be hosted on 12th March at 8 Northumberland Avenue, London.
National Conveyancing Week 2023 brought the challenges faced by conveyancers day in day out to the national consciousness in an attempt to educate the wider property community of the increasing complexity of transactions and the changing role of conveyancers; as Rob Hailstone puts it, “I had 7-10 big plates to keep spinning at one time in years gone by. Nowadays conveyancers have 15-20 (or even more) smaller plates to keep spinning which is a much harder task.”
While the core objectives of National Conveyancing Week remain, the plan for the 2024 event is to foster greater collaboration between the conveyancing profession and estate agents. In 2023 the purpose of the week was to: Inform; Educate; Assist; Motivate; Reassure; Help recruit new entrants; Improve the profile of conveyancers and conveyancing and ensure fees can be set at and kept at an acceptable level.
A full agenda is yet to be revealed although the week will again explore key themes that impact property professionals and events will be held throughout the week both in-person and online. It is anticipated that conversations around fees and commercial considerations, mental health and staff well-being, education on the roles of others in the transaction, and collaboration will be central to the week’s proceedings.
One standout success from the 2023 event was the “Collaboration Coffee Morning” during which firms were encouraged to open their doors and welcome referrers, mortgage brokers, estate agents and the public in to the business to show them more about the day to day role of a conveyancer. “Lunch and learn” and “meet the team” events were held throughout the week with presentations on leasehold, lenders, indemnity insurance, SDLT, AML. etc.
Says Rob Hailstone,
“Next year’s NCW looks to likely to attract a lot more firms. The beauty of NCW is that it is free and all conveyancers can take part as and when they like throughout the week, without leaving their offices.”
David Opie adds,
“The conveyancing profession really took the themes and objectives of the week to heart and amplified the messaging through their own websites, social media channels and activities.
“The inclusion of the estate agency community in 2024 is an opportunity to foster greater collaboration and communication. Importantly, NCW recognises that conveyancing isn’t perfect and that we can only move forward from where we are as a united property community, not a collection of individual sectors.”
The success of National Conveyancing Week has encouraged The Law Society of Northern Ireland to launch their own Conveyancing Week last week (16th to 20th October) alongside property portal Property News. Over 400 conveyancers will attend the annual Conveyancing Conference on Tuesday 17 October which is a key part of the week’s proceedings whilst events at Queens University Belfast, the Institute of Professional Legal Studies and Ulster University are also being held with RICS, NAEA Propertymark amongst others.
