The chair of SROC gives updates on next year’s conference in Hull

Hope you have all had a restful summer and are enjoying your HESA data quality checking phase (!).

Planning is well underway for SROC18 in Hull with hotel accommodation booked and the draft schedule in place. The conference dinner will take place at The Deep (https://www.thedeep.co.uk/), with the Monday evening traditional quiz night hosted by Hull University’s Students’ Union.

Those of you who were able to attend SROC17 will know that we managed to reduce the overall conference costs and passed on those savings to delegates by reducing the delegate fees charged.

Unfortunately, with the Hull City of Culture year being extended into 2018, the cost of the conference next year will be considerably higher and so we will have to increase delegate fees accordingly. The final budget is still to be agreed, but it’s looking as though the full delegate rate for SROC18 will be in the region of £395 which is higher than we would like but, if you compare this with other conference fees, it is still at the lower end of the scale and offers a wide variety of development and networking opportunities.

Which brings me to my next point!

You will, hopefully, have seen the recent ‘call for breakout sessions’ which was sent via the SROC mailing list and to last year’s delegates. If you are able to offer a breakout session, or have an idea for one but are not sure if you are the right person to deliver it, then please get in touch with Sara McDonnell our Breakout Co-ordinator (S.Mcdonnell@uel.ac.uk)

Feedback from SROC17 showed that many of you would like to see more ‘Let’s Talk About’ sessions, so if you have a hot topic you’d like to suggest then please let Sara know!

Finally, thank you to those delegates who applied for the SROC bursaries to attend SACRAO 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee and sorry that you can’t all be winners! After much deliberation, the bursaries were awarded to Mick Norman (University of Kent) and Janine Downs (University of Huddersfield) and we look forward to hearing about their experiences when we meet in Hull.

Hope you all have a productive autumn and look out for further information about conference bookings before the Christmas holidays!!

Judith

Judith Davison Chair, SROC

< Back to all news