Sunday at the NRCC

Sunday was a half day at this year's National Retail Consumer Conference (NRCC) but it wasn't without its share of excitement.

We started off with a talk from Charles Gould, Director-General of the International Co‑operative Alliance (ICA) who told us about the ongoing work to ensure that the UN International Year of Co-operatives in 2012 will be a great success. The ICA want co-operatives worldwide feel a real and lasting legacy from the year - and also to iron out all the intricacies of the UN's existing processes for international years.

Work has already been done to get the UN to release the logo for the year much earlier than they are used to, with the artwork hopefully being available on March 17 this year. The ICA hope that co-operatives worldwide will embrace the logo and use it throughout 2012 to surprise potential co-operators with the breadth and depth of the movement. They are also looking into the possibility of retaining the logo after 2012 as a "co-operative kitemark".

Other exciting parts of 2012 will include a legacy investment fund for supporting new co-operatives, hopefully set up with investments from the top Global 300 co-operatives, and the ICA Expo in Manchester. This will take place between 30th October and 2 November, and will hopefully include an online "world congress": keep watching this space for more details, or contact Bernadette Turner, Co-operatives UK's International Officer.

Charles was followed by Ben Reid OBE, Chief Executive of Midcounties Co-operative and ex-Chair of the Co-operatives UK Board. Ben took advantage of the freedom standing down from our Board gave him to talk with the voice of his co-operative, rather than the whole movement, and gave a full and frank evaluation of the importance of the Co-operative Brand.

He told the audience how successful the brand had been for Midcounties, bringing a measurable improvement in like-for-like sales after it was brought in, and also how useful it had been in preventing arguments about new names when Midcounties was created by the merger of the Oxford, Swindon and Gloucester Co-operative Society (OSG) and the West Midlands Co-operative Society (WMCS). He also reminded us that the Co-operative Commission's original plan for the brand that it would unite all co-operatives, not just the consumer sector. This led David Rodgers to later joke that he was considering changing the name of CDS to the Co-operative Housing - Good with Homes.

Ben also explained the measures that Midcounties take to ensure that from the first day of their employment, their staff know exactly what being part of a co-operative means. They do this through their "Midcounties DOES" training - extoling the co-operative values of Democracy, Openness, Equality and Social responsibility. This hard work meant that Ben could announce to delegates that Midcounties had just been named one of the 25 Best Big Businesses to work for by the Sunday Times.

After a brief break, David Rodgers - President of the ICA Housing Sector Organisation and Chief Executive of the Co‑operative Development Society - gave a curtailed view of the future for co-operative and social housing in the UK. Although the UK's co-operative housing sector is small - just 0.6% of the total housing stock - it is already punching well above its weight with tenants who are the most satisfied of all social housing tenants on every measure.

Unfortunately, with the banking crisis still having an impact on the UK's finances, David warned that there are tough times ahead for social housing. Government cuts and new restrictions over what little funding there is available mean that it is unlikely we will see any new social housing built in the lifetime of this government. That presented opportunities for housing co-operatives, but also great challenges. One way David hoped to ensure the co-operative movement could still make its mark in housing was through a new investment bank set up to fund housing co-operatives: work is currently ongoing on a feasibility study.

The day was rounded off by Co-operatives UK Secretary General Ed Mayo, who gave a whistle-stop tour of some of the work that the organisation is currently undertaking to promote, develop and unite the co-operative sector. He talked about our ongoing discussions to ensure the safety of the co-operative dividend and that members' share capital is treated fairly, and gave a sneak preview of Christian Wolmar's upcoming report on Co-operative Rail - which found that 63% of people in the UK think passengers need a greater say in how the railways are run.

He also talked about our ongoing project to look into co-operative options for the post office, which will report back to government later this year. This work will inform a consultation on the way forward which will be produced by the government shortly.

He also talked about Co-operatives UK's plans for Co-operatives Fortnight and our Co-operative Congress, which this year will feature a key note address from Mary Portas, the "Queen of Shops". Maybe we will see you at Congress this year - if so, you'll hopefully notice a difference as this flagship event continues to evolve to better serve our members and promote the co-operative sector to the world.

Co-operatives UK would like to give our thanks to all the speakers who made the NRCC such a success this year, and to all our members who attended to share their views and experiences with each other.