Bournemouth International Centre will welcome over 800 delegates for the 2013 UKSG Annual Conference and Exhibition and will have the opportunity to clinch the 2016 event if all goes well, according to the organiser.
The UKSG’s 2013 event is likely to contribute £800k in economic benefit to the seaside town.
UKSG is a registered charity dedicated to exchanging ideas on scholarly communication and connecting the knowledge community, and counts 500 organisations among its membership. One third of members are based outside the UK. This year’s annual conference was held at Glasgow’s SECC and, UKSG Business Manager and Events Organiser Alison Whitehorn tells CN the organisation has booked to return there in 2015 and 2018.
The 2014 and 2017 dates, she says, are signed up with Harrogate International Centre, in line with UKSG’s policy of rotating the annual conference around the country.
“If next year’s conference works well in Bournemouth,” says Whitehorn, “UKSG is likely to return in 2016.”
UKSG embraces librarians, publishers and intermediaries and technology vendors in the scholarly information community and is hopeful that 80 exhibitors will come to Bournemouth for the 2013 conference, 8-10 April 2013.
Whitehorn says that, initially, increasing the exhibition component of the event was a key reason to move to the UK’s larger conference centres and away from its traditional academic venues in 2007 when UKSG’s exhibition component was around 50 stands.
Next year will be the first time that the BIC will have held the UKSG annual conference, although the organisation was in Torquay in 2008 and 2009 with its annual conference.
Whitehorn does not totally rule out a return to an academic venue and notes the 2010 conference in Edinburgh’s EICC “blew the budget”.
For 2013, she says, “UKSG chose to come to Bournemouth because the BIC and town have so much to offer our delegates. “The accessibility of the town and close proximity of accommodation to the BIC is a real selling point as is the location close to the gardens and seont. The BIC is also able to provide the numerous seminar rooms all under one roof, which is essential in creating a real buzz to the event.”
Additional highlights to the event include a conference dinner for up to 700 delegates in BIC’s Windsor Hall and an evening dinner to celebrate Dorset’s local produce and quiz night in the Bournemouth Pavilion Ballroom for up to 400 people.”
Steve Piper, Head of Venues for BH Live adds: “We are delighted to be welcoming the UKSG annual conference and exhibition for the first time and are particularly looking forward to giving delegates a fantastic experience which will hopefully encourage them to return again in future years.”
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