Conference Committee News
Report for Newsletter (April 2010)
By the time you read this article, we will be making our (almost) last minute arrangements for the Annual Conference in June. At the time of writing, interest and bookings are progressing very well and (volcanic ash allowing!) we are expecting a good attendance with numbers looking even better than last year.
You will have seen all of the information now posted on the BIALL website together with the online registration forms. We will be adding to this information as we near 10 June.
We held our last Committee Meeting in London on 26 March and we were delighted to welcome Beverly Oliver from Irwin Mitchell as a new member of the Committee. Beverly will be in Brighton to meet and greet fellow delegates and to assist in the logistics of the Conference.
Yet again, Hannah Fogg and Niamh Burns have come up with a really strong programme. There are lots of thought provoking sessions and practical overviews for delegates in all sectors and in all levels within their organisation. The weeks ahead will see a lot of work in terms of organisation of AV resources at the Brighton Centre, dealing with specific requirements for individual speakers and coordinating various matters with other Committees. Hopefully, most of this work will be completed for our next Committee meeting on 14 May.
We are very pleased at the high level of interest from Exhibitors. Although we will have a full complement of exhibition stands, the Conference Hall itself is significantly bigger than most locations and this will give a great deal of space and freedom of movement for delegates between the various stands. In addition I would again remind you that we will also have a theatre style presentation area where various exhibitors will demonstrate new products during the course of the Conference.
On the social side, the Thursday night will see the Halsbury Awards (kindly sponsored by Lexis Nexis). This will be followed by a quiz and disco night at the Thistle Hotel on the seafront. At our Annual Reception and Dinner on the Friday night (kindly sponsored by Sweet & Maxwell) the evening will be rounded off by presentation of various awards, the charity raffle which this year will be in aid of All About Kids http://cchf-allaboutkids.com/index.php and a great night of dancing and music with a lively band.
If that wasn't enough for you, you should note that we will be sharing our time in Brighton with the Brighton Fashion Weekend, taking place from 9-13 June at various locations along the seafront. Brighton will also have an eco-friendly flavour during our time there with the Greenwave Eco Festival taking place from 12-13 June and the Brighton and Hove Buses Event will provide an interesting display of old transport vehicles on Sunday 13 June. So there are lots of reasons to extend your stay in the Brighton area!!.
Jennie Mort from Sovereign and myself conducted a site visit to all of the hotels on our list in the past few weeks and we were very impressed at the standard of all hotels in the different price ranges. We are currently working to negotiate arrangements for Newcastle 2011 and will also be conducting a site visit to Belfast in expectation of it being the location for our Conference in 2012.
For the moment, I will sign off and say that I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the Brighton Conference.
John Furlong
Conference Committee
April 2010
