In June 2004 the Standing Conference Committee (SCC - which reports directly to the Research Board) undertook a review of BPS Annual Conferences. The objective of the review was to identify strengths and weakness as acknowledged from feedback by BPS members and conference attendees.

The review and its recommendations for future Annual Conferences was discussed and supported by the Research Board, which recommended that it be forwarded to the Board of Trustees. At their September 2004 meeting the Trustees gave the proposals their full support. Since then the SCC has been working to implement the changes as approved. The 2006 Annual Conference is the first to be in the new format.

Why did they decide to change it?

The review of Annual Conferences (undertaken by the SCC in June 2004) examined, from the point of view of the Society’s objectives (as described in its charter), how the Annual Conference could help the BPS to achieve its aims. Specifically, the review looked at the following three aims of the BPS:

• Encourage the development of Psychology as a scientific discipline and applied
• Profession; Raise standards of Training and Practice in the application of Psychology
• Raise Public Awareness of Psychology and increase the influence of the Society

The common themes that emerged from this process were that the Annual Conference should:

• Be a shop window for the best in, primarily British, but also international, psychology
• Promote high standards of presented material
• Be an event where new frontiers are described
• Integrate and forge links between researchers and practitioners
• Be an event where people feel that they are developing
• Be a place where it’s possible to learn new skills in addition to hearing about new knowledge
• Be an event which uses a variety of methods of knowledge and skills transfer
• Be an event which links to public events ensuring good coverage by the media

The SCC examined the following main areas of weakness identified in feedback:

• Poor attendance
• Poor value for money
• Difficulty keeping people at the conference
• Poor quality of some presentations
• Not enough social events for networking
• Exhibition not attractive enough
• Does not raise standards of psychology

A considered look at these results led the SCC to decide that the Annual Conference needs to change in a number of ways. Generally, the main proposals of these changes are:

• The quality of the Annual Conference needs to be raised so that it becomes a showcase event for British psychology and The British Psychological Society.
• Perceived and actual value for money needs to be altered to increase the level of attendance
  

More specifically:

• A shorter, more intensive and higher quality event with a smaller number of parallel sessions
• Stricter review of all submissions
• High quality key note speakers
• Invited symposia and a competitive ‘call for symposia’ - all designed to bring together experts, ideas and approaches across psychology
• Encouraging more free communications through high profile poster sessions
• More skills workshops with opportunities for continuing professional development
• A clear statement that registration fees will be capped
• Transparency as to how much the conference is costing and how much other income is subsidising conference attendees.

How can you contribute to the programme of the Annual Conference in future years?

Poster presentations:

• You can present your work in the new themed poster session that is pivotal to each Annual Conference. There will be no competing parallel sessions during the poster session, which will always (foreseeable future) take place on the Friday afternoon of each conference (prior to the conference dinner).

Keynote speakers and related symposia:

• Subsections are encouraged to nominate top individuals (from the UK or international) to participate as Keynote Speakers (7 Keynote Speakers every year representing themes from across the discipline).
• Subsections may also like to coordinate (in collaboration with the SCC) the invited symposium centred on the theme of the keynote talk.

Pre-conference workshops and symposia

• Your sub-system can make use of the AC venue, associated publicity and delegate interest by holding a pre-conference workshop or symposium. If you are interested in this then contact the Conference Office in the Leicester a least 9 months prior to the event.

Exhibition

• You can suggest exhibits for the exhibition that may of interest to fellow psychologists - contact the Conference Office.

Give your feedback

• We want to hear from you with your comments, suggestions and ideas for future Annual Conferences. Contact the Conference Office and let us know what you think.