Winter Networking

Join us for the annual PCE Hubs Winter Networking event, an in-person session dedicated to making new connections and collaborations!

Winter Networking

Following the success of last year’s event, we’re excited to invite you to our next Winter Networking on Thursday 29th January 2026 at the lovely Swaythling Neighbourhood Centre.

Whether you're new to the Hubs or have been with us for years, we’d love you to join us for a friendly, welcoming, and relaxed networking event.

This year’s theme is Funding and Finance - a challenge many of you have highlighted in today’s financial climate. We’ve partnered with several community organisations and the University of Southampton to bring you practical insights, funding opportunities, and facilitate open conversations about navigating the funding landscape.

What’s on the agenda?

• Funding Opportunities Marketplace - Explore a variety of schemes and resources.
• Interactive Discussions - Tackle topics like fair finance, community wealth building, and collaborative funding approaches.
• Digital Collaboration Platform Launch - Discover a new online space to connect, share challenges, and collaborate on projects. The Future Towns Innovation Hub will showcase how PCE Hub members can benefit from this exciting tool.

And of course, enjoy festive drinks, delicious snacks, and great company!

There will also be access to a quiet space throughout the event as we know large groups can sometimes be a little overwhelming!

Free parking available onsite in the Swaythling Neighbourhood Centre car park, with additional free parking available in the University's Hampton Car Park (by reservation via the event registration form).

A detailed agenda will be shared closer to the date.

We’re really excited about this event - we can’t wait to see you there!

Proposed Interactive Table Discussion Topics

Based on our conversations with you all throughout the year, we are proposing the following table discussion topics - and we are curating an exciting line-up of table hosts for each of these - more information to follow!

• Community Wealth Building & Doughnut Economics: How can we keep funding in our city and what are the benefits of doing so?
• Doing Funding Better – Exploring Equitable & Collaborative Application Processes: When funding is scarce and demand is high, how can we think and work collaboratively rather than competitively to improve success of funding applications and ensure funding coming into the city is supporting the goals of the city as a whole? Also, how can we influence funders so that funding application processes are fairer and also of use to the applicants even if they’re not successful?
• Fair Finance - Paying People for Their Time: How can we make sure that VCSE sector organisations are confident to ask to be paid when working with organisations like the UoS – and how can we embed in UoS culture offering to pay VCSE organisations for their time? Do we need to standardise this across the UoS? How does this work in other organisations? Are there examples of it working well, and of it not working well we can learn from & build on?
• Future Towns Innovation Hub (FTIH) Online Platform for Collaboration: An additional opportunity to talk to the FTIH team about their online platform, which we will also be launching for PCE Hubs friends/members and using as part of this event!
• Navigating Payment Processes: Find out more about payment processes at the UoS and partner organisations, such as becoming an approved supplier, submitting and paying invoices, and how to make sure you/your collaborative partners get paid correctly and on time.
• Using Data to Enhance Funding Applications: What data sources are available to you and how can you get the most out of them to showcase your impact? How can this support you in gaining more funding?
• Writing Successful Applications: Southampton Voluntary Services (SVS) are delivering funding and grant writing workshops in 2026 and want to find out what YOU need to make these sessions as effective as possible. Join them to discuss SVS’s role in supporting the local VCSE sector.

As part of the registration form, we'll ask you to select the topics you're most interested in, as well as your top two priority topics, and ideas for any key topics we're missing. We'll use these answers in our event planning to make sure you get the best & most useful experience at our event.

VCSE = Voluntary, Community, & Social Enterprise

UoS = University of Southampton