The theme of this year’s annual conference takes us back to basics and relates to the perpetual issue taxing all evaluators: how to evaluate impact. The current financial crisis brings this into even sharper focus with many evaluators asking themselves why evaluation does not seem to be answering the key strategic questions facing us today. This environment also brings further uncertainty to evaluators in terms of the complex nature of the economic environment, the stress on evaluation funding and a renewed challenge to demonstrate value for money and the benefits of evaluation.

The conference aims to look at methods and issues around evaluating impact in key spheres: economic, social, health, cultural and environmental. It will provide evaluators with an opportunity to develop their understanding of methodologies and to air their views and work through issues around the way in which we look at impact.

The conference will address the key issues facing evaluators today and will provide a forum for all evaluators from across government, academia and the voluntary and private sectors. The aim of the conference is the same as that of UKES: to advance and improve the theory and practice of evaluation.

The conference includes a number of keynote speakers and a series of panels and forums. There are also parallel sessions for which evaluators from across the evaluation community have submitted papers under the following themes.

Theme 1: Evaluating Economic Impact
Theme 2: Evaluating Social Impact
Theme 3: Evaluating Health Impact
Theme 4: Evaluating Cultural Impact
Theme 5: Evaluating Environmental Impact
Theme 6: Impact of Evaluation on Policy and Practice

The conference will be held at the Holiday Inn London Bloomsbury, Coram Street, London WC1N 1HT.