From 20-27 June 2017, the University hosted a conference which was a departure from the usual academic conference in the form of L’Arche Internationale Federation Assembly.

Representatives from the 138 worldwide sister organisations gathered in a historic global meeting in which 500 people with and without intellectual disabilities from 37 countries, speaking at least 17 languages, from all faiths and none, got together to embrace each other and celebrate their differences.

This unique, week-long meeting, which took place in Belfast on June 20, is one of the few large-scale events worldwide where people with intellectual disabilities come together as equal partners with other members of society.

They joined us at Queen’s for an entire week; over 500 delegates enjoyed a full-board package, and most of the delegates enjoyed bed and breakfast in Elms BT9 before utilising over 50 classrooms for various activities, talks, dance and music classes and using most of the function rooms across campus for lunches and dinners.

It was a joyful event, and support staff across the University were more than happy to assist with the infrastructure and organisation involved in the delivery of such a large-scale event.

It is an excellent example of the versatility of the Team in successfully delivering an event which was years in the planning. L’Arche Internationale did not have their own events team, instead utilising their volunteers to work in conjunction with the University team to deliver the event.

The largest hybrid conference to be hosted at Queen’s University took place on 26-29 July 2022 for the European Association of Social Anthropologists.

EASA organises biennial conferences for the European anthropological community. The Belfast conference was originally booked for 2020, but like so many similar events, COVID meant it had to be cancelled. They then held a conference the following year to catch up; EASA 2021 was delivered entirely online.

EASA was the first major conference hosted in the University post-COVID and the first to offer their delegates the option of a fully hybrid programme.  Eventually, there were 1800 registered delegates, with about 45% of those participating online.

43 breakout rooms were used, running in parallel across 7 buildings, all of which were delivering virtual presentations live. In addition, the QFT delivered pre-booked screenings on relevant topics and other unusual venues, including the sound labs in the Sonic Arts.

Planning for EASA took place in unusual circumstances as it was impossible to predict until mid-spring 2022 if the COVID pandemic would recede sufficiently to allow for a large-scale on-site event; this meant decisions usually made a long time ahead of the event ( number of break out rooms, which ones were most suitable, how many on-site delegates to be catered for)  were all made really quickly and quite close to the event date needed.

Despite COVID and visa issues arising from the war in Ukraine and BREXIT, the conference attracted over 1000 delegates, three times as many as anticipated, with representation from 89 countries. This helped contribute to 4000 bed nights across Belfast and an economic impact of £1.5m to the city.

EASA ran from 26-29 July 2022 and, at that time, was the largest conference to have been delivered by the Events and Conferences Team in conjunction with NOMAD IT, the PCO currently contracted to deliver events for EASA.

 The anthropologists were an environmentally conscious group, and theirs is the first conference with vegan-only catering Queen’s have hosted with vegan-only food provided for up to 1000 delegates across 4 days.

The conference was a challenge for the bigger team at the University,  including portering, security and hospitality but it was also a major post-COVID confidence booster and great to see so many delegates on site enjoying the excellent facilities on offer at QUB and thankfully, the weather was very kind too.

The European Federation of Associations and Centres of Irish Studies seeks to promote interest in and support the expansion of Irish Studies throughout Europe. It is an international non-profit organisation based in the historic Irish College of Leuven in Belgium.

EFACIS 2023 was hosted at QUB and organised by the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics.

Many of the conferences organised within the University are aligned with associations or societies which have a  dedicated conference and events manager or team on their staff.  Others, especially those expecting high numbers, will appoint a PCO (Professional Conference organiser) to deliver some or all of the conference elements.

However, for those staff delivering conferences without this support, many, including EFACIS, have sourced support from the University Events Team to help deliver elements of their event where they lack the time or sufficient knowledge to take forward unsupported.

The delivery of conference management services is where the Events and Conferencing Team come into their own.

EFACIS 2023 had 150 delegates attending the conference on the main University site, and the internal organisers utilised a dedicated staff from the Events team throughout the duration of the conference from 24-27 August and were also supported throughout their delegate registration.

In addition, the Events team prepared and distributed the delegate joining instructions prior to the conference. The Team also helped manage the tender process, sourced and procured appropriate items and literature for the delegate bags and prepared and packed these.

They also managed all elements of the infrastructure, including catering and liaising with media services.