The 2026 Charles Parker Day will be held on Friday 8 May at the Digital Media Performance Lab, University of Salford, MediaCityUK, Orange Tower, Salford M50 2HE, when the winners of the 2026 Charles Parker Prize will be announced. Save the date!

The first Charles Parker Day was held in 2004 in Bournemouth (his birthplace) on his birthday, 5th April, and included the launch of the first Charles Parker prize. The highly successful event involved media practitioners, critics and researchers celebrating and discussing the work and influence of this pioneering BBC Radio producer. The Charles Parker Day is now an important event established in the national and international broadcasting conference calendar.

The Day is now a well established event in the national radio conference calendar. It brings together practitioners, researchers and media teachers to consider developments in radio and television that maintain the spirit of Parker’s work in a UK and international context. It is an opportunity to reflect on this innovative producer’s work and examine within a wider contemporary context the philosophy behind his radio productions.

The 2025 Charles Parker Day was held on Friday 16 May at Goldsmiths College, London. The whole event was streamed and can be viewed on our youtube channel. Suzie Bowerman, distinguished university lecturer in audio production and tutor of one of the prize's former Gold Award winners was at Goldsmith's for the event. We asked her to reflect on what the competition means for her, and you can read her response here.