Our 2025 Annual Meeting is moving further north year this to Birmingham and will be held at St Martin in the Bull Ring on Saturday, 20th September 2025, so get the date in your diary!
Follow the link to see more details or click here to get directions in Google Maps. The church is around 6 minutes walk from New Street Station, so readily accessible by rail.
The meeting is a great opportunity to meet and socialise with fellow magazine editors, as well as celebrate the winners of our 2025 awards. There will also be opportunity to hear from and ask questions of our keynote speakers – check their profiles further down the page.
All church magazine editors are welcome to join. Please do bring copies of your magazine to share with others on the “swaps” table.
Should you wish to join us, please use the booking form available here: https://forms.office.com/r/1zxaHbSqa9
Don’t forget to book your travel tickets too!
Programme
10.30 Arrival with tea, coffee, biscuits and chat
11.00 Welcome and introductions
11.10 Keynote Talk by Tola Doll Fisher
11.55 Questions to the speaker
12.00 AGM
Agenda will be available on arrival.
12.15 Lunch
Please bring a packed lunch with you. Tea and coffee will be provided.
13.15 Afternoon Talk by Ian Gilchrist
14.00 Questions to the speaker
14.05 Coping with the end of Microsoft Publisher
A short talk by Tim Cooke outlining the options, followed by questions
14.20 Comfort break
14.30 Presentation of Awards
Short review of the Award categories and the entries for the 2025 ACE Awards followed by the presentation of certificates and trophies with photographs.
15.10 Closing prayer
Keynote Speaker - Tola Doll Fisher
Tola Doll Fisher wrote all the articles and interviewed her neighbours for her first magazine aged about 9 or 10! She is now the magazine editor and creative director of Premier Woman Alive, co‑host of the YouTube show Sisterhood, creator and host of the Woman Alive podcast and author of ‘Still Standing:100 Lessons From An ‘Unsuccessful’ Life’. In her work as a speaker, Tola delivered a TEDx Talk on Debunking the Myth of Success and writes regularly on Substack under the name Christ Couture, unfiltered personal essays from a Christian model (not a model Christian).
We look forward to hearing her story and being inspired on our own editing journey, as well as picking up some ideas and tips for our magazines.
Afternoon Speaker - Ian Gilchrist
Our afternoon speaker will be ACE member, Ian Gilchrist, who will be giving us numerous tips on where to find ideas for articles, how to write them in an interesting way, how to choose and use photos effectively, and how to lay out the pages for maximum impact.
For five years Ian has been responsible for compiling, editing and laying out The Bridge magazine, which is the parish magazine covering the four Hampshire villages of Meonstoke, Corhampton, Exton and Droxford, and previous winner in the ACE awards.
During his career, Ian has spent time as a journalist in Fleet Street, a full-time broadcaster at Capital Radio and LBC, and a university lecturer in journalism.