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Conference Organisation

Amelia Philpott Sarah Pannell. Conference Organisation. Who are we? Why are we giving this talk?. 3 rd year Biochemistry DPhil students (surely we don't have time to organise a conference?). Chemistry and Biochemistry PG Seminars at Sussex started 06/07, expanded 07/08.

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Conference Organisation

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  1. Amelia Philpott Sarah Pannell Conference Organisation

  2. Who are we? Why are we giving this talk? • 3rd year Biochemistry DPhil students • (surely we don't have time to organise a conference?) Chemistry and Biochemistry PG Seminars at Sussex started 06/07, expanded 07/08. In Spring 08 started forming links with other local universities – Seminar Exchange. Interest from other universities increased, so decided to bring everyone together in a symposium day.

  3. General Considerations • Audience • Purpose • Location • Time

  4. Bioscience Post Graduate Symposium • Aimed at Bioscience PGs in the South East of England • To share research, gain confidence in presenting work to a wide audience, network with people from different universities and speak to company reps about their products. • At Sussex University, 15th December 2008

  5. BPGS08 Checklist • Budget – raise money • Decide date and book venue • Publicity • Presenters (oral & poster) • Creating contacts • Catering • Registration • Encouraging attendance • Arranging day programme • Prizes

  6. Budget • How much money have you got? • How many people are attending? • Are you feeding them? • Lunch from UoS catering service costs £5.25/person. • 100 delegates x £5.25 = £525! And that's without any coffee/biscuits. What other expenses might you have? • Travel expenses for speakers? • Printing of posters/flyers/programme Stick rigidly to costings – you can’t spend what you don’t have.

  7. Budget • Where can you get funding from? • Companies • Will usually want something in return  can you offer them anything? • Societies • Department • University Accounts department (in Sussex House) can set up account codes to pay in to/take from.

  8. Publicity • Targeting publicity is so important • Posters and flyers • E-mail • Mass e-mails to students • Targeted e-mails to Heads of Department and Directors of Graduate Studies at other universities • Website (www.sussex.ac.uk/biochemistry/bpgs08) • Word of mouth from company reps and presenting authors

  9. Issues we’ve encountered • Need to start with a good proposal • Problems with venue • Quotes from suppliers e.g. printers • Organising catering – accurate numbers etc. • Communication with other universities – important to create reliable contacts • Communication with sponsors (£!) • Publications and branding

  10. Negatives of the whole experience • Time consuming • Need to be disciplined about time spent • Will be stressful and exhausting on the day • Always something you won’t have thought of • Working as a team helps with this.

  11. Positives of the whole experience • Encouragement from sponsors – if you don’t ask you don’t get – be ambitious! • Enjoyable experience (overall) • Looks amazing on your CV • Forces you to develop excellent organisational and teamwork skills

  12. Overall • Good experience • Proved it’s possible but needed good foundations Sign up to attend! www.sussex.ac.uk/biochemistry/bpgs08

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