A men’s wellbeing organisation has reported its highest ever attendance at its annual Resilience Gathering, an event designed to provide structured support for men experiencing what organisers described as “a sustained period of accumulated challenge.”
The two-day gathering, held at a rural conference centre in the north of England, welcomed 340 delegates — an increase of 23% on the previous year — and was structured around four self-declared attendee classifications introduced at registration: Carrying A Lot, Working Through Things, Navigating Complexity, and Fine But Present.
The Fine But Present category, added to the registration process in 2024 after a significant number of delegates self-reported as fine on arrival but became less fine during the opening address, was described by the forum’s head of programmes as “the fastest-growing classification in the event’s history.” Delegates in this category received a tote bag and were seated in the central rows, described in the programme as the Reflective Zone.
The keynote address, titled Strength In Uncertainty, ran for 47 minutes and covered the importance of acknowledging difficulty, the value of peer presence, and the concept of moving forward at a sustainable pace. A post-session word cloud produced by delegates contained the word “forward” 84 times; no specific direction was indicated.
A breakout session titled Communication and Connection invited attendees to describe a recent conversation that had not gone as hoped. Organisers reported that the majority of delegates described a conversation about something unrelated to what the conversation had originally been about, which facilitators described as “a very recognisable pattern.”
A Sunday morning session on the theme of Letting Go was the most attended of the weekend. Delegates were asked to write something they wished to release onto a small card and place it in a bowl. The bowl’s contents were not shared, reviewed, or followed up on, which the programme notes described as “the point.”
The forum confirmed that no formal outcomes were measured across the weekend, as introducing measurement would, in the words of its director, “have changed the nature of what was being created.” A post-event wellbeing check-in was sent to all attendees three weeks later; 61% opened it, and 34% clicked through to the survey. Of those who began the survey, 58% completed it. Results have not yet been published, pending a review of how to contextualise them.
Plans for next year’s gathering are described as confirmed in intent, with a venue and date under active consideration. A new fifth attendee classification — Returning With Context — is under consultation for delegates who attended the previous year and would like that acknowledged at registration.
