JISC Conference 2009 sponsorship opportunity

The JISC Conference is a free conference to mainly all those wonderful people working in the further and higher education sectors. It is a consistently high quality event, with excellent speakers, sessions, demos and exhibition, not to mention the lovely grub we lay on in great surroundings! :-)

We do have a budget but we also rely on commercial exhibitors and sponsors to help us pull off this free of charge extravaganza every year. Without them we would not be able to do it. We are therefore currently looking for a main conference sponsor, full details on the conference website. Previous conference sponsors have been Eduserv and OCLC. If you think your organisation might be interested or you know of one that might be interested then do please let me know!

Grace Porter

Events Co-ordinator

JISC

g.porter@jisc.ac.uk

October 17, 2008 | Filed Under jiscevents, jisc09, news | Leave a Comment 

JISC Conference 2009

It is nearly that time again…the big one! The next JISC annual conference is being held on Tuesday 24 March 2009 in the beautiful city of Edinburgh.

We will be amplifying the conference again this year with livestreamed keynotes, blogging of the sessions, micro-blogging via twitter, photo-sharing and videos. We have learned from last year that we need to make sure that the livestreamed keynotes not only show the video but the slides that the speaker is presenting to as well. Furthermore we need to provide some kind of live commenting facility - for those watching the keynotes via the web - essentially so people watch and listen, see the slides and comment, and do it all live. We are still currently investigating the best way (and most cost effective way!) to do this, with Hector Peebles leading the way on this. More updates on all this stuff to come!

A new feature that we will be launching in 2009 is assisted 1-2-1 networking. The JISC Conference consistently offers great networking opportunities. However, delegate feedback tells us that it also difficult to network effectively due to the size of the event and tightly packged programme. So I wanted to try and enhance the delegate experience this year by improving the networking opportunities - something I think that can often get overlooked with our efforts to amplify.

We hope to achieve this by introducing a web-based tool that delegates will be able to log into via the conference website and search for people that they would want to network with on the day. They can send an automated secure and private invite via the system to people they want to meet, and if the invite is accepted the system automatically allocates a time-slot and a table in a dedicated networking area at the conference venue. The system works out mutually free timeslots based on each individuals schedule for the day, which the system knows already as it is linked to the main delegate registration system. Its very clever and I think a fantastic idea.

The delegates then just need to go to the networking room at the relevant time and sit at the right table number. Easy! Hopefully! I hope that this will be useful to many delegates who predominantly attend for the networking experience. Exhibitors will also be able to benefit from this by putting up profiles of themselves and inviting and accepting delegates to 1-2-1 meetings on their stand.

Finally, I have introduced a set of environmental standards which relate specifically to the JISC Conference 2009. I have been working to introduce environmentally friendly practices into the organisation of JISC events in general. I felt it was important that we make as much effort as possible to reduce the impact of the JISC Conference 2009. One major change that we have made is to abandon the conference delegate bag altogether, and get rid of the sponsor delegate pack inserts. The main reason for this was the delegate bag was really only to put all the inserts in - a huge waste! So no delegate bag, attendees will just get their badge and a significantly reduced in size event guide. Everything else will be online including delegate list etc. The delegate pack inserts will be replaced with electronic adverts which will be displayed on a rolling basis on the fixed plasma screens located all around the venue. We shall see if exhibitors like this idea or not…but essentially they have to get used to it as the delegate pack insert is no more!

Look forward to seeing you in Edinburgh next year! If you are coming do try to help us reduce the environmental impact of your event by taking public transport, perhaps car-sharing. Info on the conference website.

October 15, 2008 | Filed Under jisc09, news | 1 Comment