The bi-annual National Conference 2026 of PROSPECT took place between June 6th and June 9th in Brighton. BECTU as a Sector of PROSPECT was widely represented with several different Branches.

The Camera Branch is one of the larger Branches within the BECTU sector and due to our current membership count, we were able to send up to six delegates to this years Conference. I am very happy that we had a delegation of five members attending this Conference (the 6th delegate unfortunately had to step aside last minute due to urgent family matters), which was a significant increase and improvement in comparison to previous National Conferences were we were only represented by 1-2 delegates.

This was an important improvement. The more delegates we are sending to these conferences the more “voting power” we can bring to the table.

The National Conference is the highest democratic body of our Union. It is “the Parliament” of our Union. It sets the agenda, adjusts the rules and regulations and decides on the way the Union works for the next two years.

The Conference delegations were debating a large variety of topics and issues, voting on about 130 different motions, a number of nominations for the National Executive Committee (NEC), Standing Orders Committee (SOC), National Appeals Committee (NAC) and a new PROSPECT Trustee during the Conference.

It was an intense few days, packed with interesting conversations, new and different points of view, networking opportunities and for most of us as first-time delegates, eye-opening insights on how our union is structured and how democratic processes within our union work. I’d like to encourage anyone who wants to get involved in the union movement to at some point either attend a BECTU Sector Conference or a PROSPECT National Conference (alternating biannual events) as it widens the view points of members and gives you a real-life insight into how a democratic union structure works.

In my function as Sector Executive Committee member and member of the SEC working group on Artificial Intelligence, I was invited as a Panel member to one of the National Conferences Fringe26 events. This panel discussion had the title: Artificial Intelligence: Taking back control. It was chaired by Kathryn Sosville and my co-panelist was Dr Abigail Gilbert (Co-Director, Institute for the Future of Work). We had a very lively and inspirational discussion with the well attended audience on the impacts of AI on workers, workplaces and the future of work.

There will be further updates on the outcomes, discussions and results of the National Conference 2026 coming soon and I will keep you all updated on these developments.

I like to thank our delegation members, personally, as Chair of our Branch and in this role in the name of our members, for their commitment, work and inspirational input in preparation of and over the last week during the Conference.

Let’s keep the good spirit and momentum running to improve our members everyday work life!

Best,

Raphael