Big changes afoot – and scientists to benefit
Courses and conferences, 2010 and beyond
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While providing a new home for several of EMBL’s groups, the principal function of the Advanced Training Centre is to provide a new European hub for conferences, courses and workshops in the life sciences. Its new facilities will serve one of EMBL’s core missions: training. As a result, the Course and Conference Office (CCO) has been busy professionalising its services, both to deal with a substantial rise in the numbers of courses, conferences and participants, and also to ensure that scientists benefit most effectively from the fantastic new facilities available. |
“Ensuring that everything runs smoothly when a scientific event goes ‘live’ is only the tip of the iceberg,” explains Sally Davison, head of the CCO team, which also consists of conference officers Bettina Schäfer, Gwen Sanderson and Adela Valceanu, marketing officer Antje Seeck and trainee Rosalia Mendez. Two junior conference officers will join in November. “There’s a long preparation period, sometimes taking more than a year, which often goes unnoticed by the participants.”
The team coordinates budgets, creates webpages and registration sites and handles payment and abstract submissions. They promote the courses and conferences with marketing campaigns, help find sponsors and handle funding applications, all before the event actually kicks off, when they orchestrate the on-site logistics together with the Photolab, the canteen and the EMBL caretakers.
Major changes in the way scientists can expect to go about organising a conference will ensure the continuing quality of the events for the benefit of all participants, both internal and external. “We want the scientific organisers to be able to focus entirely on the science and not have to worry about anything else,” says Sally. “With the opening of the ATC we’re introducing a new, improved model of organisation. Group leaders are no longer responsible for any deficit; this is now the overall responsibility of EICAT, and any surplus from bigger conferences can also be used to support smaller courses and workshops.”
The new ATC facilities – which include the centrepiece 480-seat auditorium, four seminar rooms, two training labs and a computer lab – will also be made available to outside scientific organisers. The ‘old’ conference facilities (eg. the Operon and room 202) will be fully available for internal events, in particular the busy seminar programme.
“Running the CCO as a fully accountable, non-profit fund centre increases the transparency of our operations,” says Sally. “External funding helps keep registration fees as low as possible, and there’s now a clear system of fixed fees. Furthermore, we provide a number of fellowships from funds donated by the Corporate Partnership Programme.”
More details can be found in the new EMBL Guidelines for Conference Organisation, available for EMBL staff at www.embl. de/events/guidelines. External readers can check out the CCO webpages at www. embl.org/events. - EMBL etcetera
