The cycle campaigners conference: venues, hosts and speakers by year

Each year the federation supported a different local group to organise and run the national conference. The host group found the venue, built the programme with the federation and arranged the weekend around it. According to the federation's own description, there were organised rides and socials over the weekend, the cost was kept very low, and a limited amount of accommodation was available with local cyclists for delegates who needed it.

The programme followed the issues of the moment. Speakers came from national bodies, councils, government and consultancies as well as from local groups, and the federation varied the format to leave room for discussion with the presenters. In later years the conference was a joint event with CTC, which was renamed Cycling UK in April 2016.

The early conferences moved round the country in spring and autumn. In 2001 they were held in Ryde on the Isle of Wight and in Chesterfield. Liverpool followed in 2002 and Sheffield in 2003. In 2004 the conference crossed to Dublin. The 2005 conferences were in Godalming and Warrington, the 2007 conference in Oxford, and in 2008 Warrington hosted again. In May 2009 Manchester held a two-day event: the Cycling Futures seminar and the Cycling as a Solution conference. The papers given at those events are listed on the cycle planning papers page.

In November 2011 the conference went to Edinburgh, hosted by Spokes, the Lothian cycle campaign, and drew over 100 delegates.

Spring 2012 brought a seminar in Birmingham called Winning the Arguments, covered in detail on its own page. The autumn 2012 conference was in Bristol, under the title "Segregate or Integrate?". Dr Adrian Davis and Roger Geffen of CTC spoke, and the programme included Cyclescape, the online campaigning toolkit for cycle campaign groups.

On Saturday 5 October 2013 the conference was in Leeds, organised by Leeds Cycling Campaign under the title "Making the Links". Roger Geffen, then CTC's campaigns and policy director, gave two talks, one on where cycling stood and one on understanding and influencing a local authority; CTC presented its Road Justice campaign; and Carlton Reid spoke on the theme that roads were not built for cars.

On 22 November 2014 the conference was held at Lambeth Town Hall in London, hosted by London Cycling Campaign, and opened with an extraordinary general meeting of the federation at which all the motions were passed. Campaigners came from across the UK and Ireland. In the morning Naomi Green of the Department for Transport presented the Cycling and Walking Delivery Plan, Chris Kenyon of CyclingWorks spoke about business support for London's planned cycle superhighways, and Paul Gasson of Waltham Forest Cycling Campaign described the borough's mini-Holland. The afternoon turned to design standards: Phil Jones on the Active Travel (Wales) Act design guidance, Brian Deegan of Transport for London on the London Cycling Design Standards, and Martin Lucas-Smith on Making Space for Cycling.

The 2015 conference, held jointly with CTC, took place on Saturday 24 October at Blackburne House in Liverpool, hosted by Merseyside Cycling Campaign. Tickets were £25 and £15.

On Saturday 19 November 2016 the conference, now held jointly with Cycling UK, was in St Albans, hosted by St Albans Cycle Campaign. Over 100 people attended, and the federation called it its busiest conference for many years. Tickets were £15 and £10.

The 2017 conference was in Oxford on Saturday 11 November, with an extra day of workshops on Friday 10 November; Cyclox, the Oxford campaign, published the presentations and workshop summaries. The 2018 conference was in Birmingham on 24 November with Push Bikes, and it included a day for councillors and council officers alongside the campaigners' programme.

The federation was open about the task: running the annual conference could look daunting, but a host group gained experience and local exposure from it. The work fell into a few parts. The group had to find and book a venue, agree a programme and speakers with the federation, organise the weekend rides and socials, and, where delegates wanted it, find local cyclists willing to put someone up. Keeping the ticket price low meant keeping those costs low as well.

For the visitors, the rides were a chance to see the host city's streets with the people who campaign on them. For the host group, the conference was a chance to put local issues in front of national speakers and other campaigners in one day.

Most of the host groups named here are still active, and their own sites are listed in the directory of local groups. The newsletters of the period carried the conference notices and reports.