08/95/14
EPC Annual Congress
Aide memoire
This is usually around Easter time but avoiding the week leading up to Good Friday. We normally start on the Monday evening with an informal reception (drinks and dinner) and have the event formally opened on the Tuesday morning. Then two sessions on the Tuesday am and pm followed by the EPC Reception and the Congress Dinner. This is a special event usually held in some local place of interest such as a castle, manor House, fine hotel or some such. On the Wednesday there can be one or two sessions. Morning only or morning and afternoon
It is important to have these for each session. At least one should be a topical issue but some others are things of on-going interest. These need to be fixed in advance certainly by the start of the November in the preceding year. It could be worth keeping the Wednesday afternoon free to allow for the late insertion of any really hot topics.
It is important to remember the diversity of our members. Not all are interested in the ramifications of the Research Excellence Framework or of the issues concerning Foundation degrees; but for some members each of these is a major issue. An ideal programme will have something for everyone!
To start off the congress if possible, needs to be a ‘name’ and ideally someone who will be an attraction.
Good speakers get booked up fast! At least a skeleton programme with speakers needs to be ready by the end of November.
It is important to provide a good briefing for speakers so that they do not repeat what each other has said and that they can each contribute something different to their particular session.
In even years the after dinner speech should be given by the winner of the President’s prize. In odd years you will need to find someone suitable, who can give a short, witty and ideally engineering or at least HE related speech!
Within reason to be encouraged. in the past we have had sponsorship from engineering professional institutions and some companies. It is important to start looking for this in good time and to use all possible local contacts.
Our members expect a high standard of room. If student accommodation is offered this should be fully en suite and of reasonable standard though Business School or specialist conference facilities are better. If accommodation is perceived to be too frugal, a number will book into local hotels instead and as a result the informal networking that is such a feature is partially lost. It does not seem as if cost is too important a factor in determining attendance but the quality of the programme is definitely paramount.
Depending on location it would seem sensible to book around 50 single en suite rooms on a sale or return basis as soon as possible and if the University does not have suitable accommodation then local hotels have to be used.
Agree main themes with EPC committee
Skeleton programme with main speakers and keynote speaker and after dinner speaker.
Detailed programme and leaflet with cost (to be agreed by the EPC Committee). It may help to get a few more members if details of tourist attractions form part of the information in case partners wish to join delegates though this is not essential.
Programme mailed out electronically to EPC members and by snail mail to other interested parties, this is done by the EPC Office
Remember to agree the title of their talk, ask permission to put on the web site, ask for their slides/presentation in advance and ask for a brief biography so that the chair of their session can introduce them properly.
If possible an on-line booking system which allows for credit card payments should be used. If delegates have to write in or telephone it is important to handle enquiries efficiently and acknowledge them as soon as possible.
We normally offer the congress as one package including all meals and all days of the congress. It might be worth considering allowing delegates to register (at a higher cost) for just one of the days or even for one session.
The peak times for registration are likely to be late afternoon on the first day and early evening and the early morning of the second day.
Participants will need name badges and a delegate pack.
The following need to be organised
Menu Cards
We normally hold the EPC AGM on the afternoon of the first proper day of the congress. Timings and a suitable room need to be arranged.
The EPC committee normally hold a committee meeting on the afternoon before the congress and start with a buffet lunch. The cost of the room and the buffet lunch are the responsibility of EPC and not the host university. However, we do expect the host university to book a suitable room and arrange the lunch.
We expect the congress organiser to write suitable thank you letters to all the speakers and sponsors. (We may want to approach them again in future years)
15 Web site
After the event we put all the presentations onto our website. We expect the congress organiser to send these to the EPC office and to have obtained the speakers’ permission for them to appear on a publicly accessible web site.
We expect that the host university may well want to arrange this with both local and national press probably using their university press office. This may be especially appropriate when we are giving the President’s Prize as this could lend itself to a press release.
In previous years we have sometimes had a session for poster presentations and this has seemed to be a positive feature. Depending on the costs of accommodation it could be worth considering. If the cost of the extra space is high then it is probably not worth including; but if it can be arranged at minimal extra cost it is worth thinking about and should enable us to showcase particular areas of engineering research.