Festival of Neuroscience, BNA2023
The Festival of Neuroscience is the flagship event of the British Neuroscience Association (BNA) calendar. This highly successful event achieved all its objectives and delivered an outstanding experience for participants.
The Brief
Create a shared event co-owned by 23 associations, charities, and other organisations in neuroscience. The aims were to:
- Enable the local community to engage with and benefit from the conference.
- Break down barriers between commercial and academic communities.
- Progress the sector in areas including sustainability, inclusion, credibility, diversity, and advocacy.
- Generate significant income from sponsorship and exhibition sales.
Services Provided
Full end-to-end event management services including:
- Speaker, abstract, sponsor, and exhibitor management.
- Budget management including credit control and book-keeping.
- Delegate engagement, registration, and badging.
Highlights
- The BNA2023 festival achieved all its primary objectives.
- A record number of delegate bursaries, grants, and prizes were offered.
- Our Festival app boosted delegate engagement.
Held in Brighton in April 2023, this was the sixth BNA Festival of Neuroscience and the first held in-person since 2019. It is the BNA’s major source of income.
Outsourced Events provided full end-to-end event management services. We worked very closely with the small inhouse BNA team to deliver their vision as sustainably and cost-effectively as possible.
By taking the strain off the BNA team, OE enabled them to focus on their area of expertise: topical content.
Festival income, mainly generated via sponsorship and exhibition sales, was up 42% on the previous Festival, BNA2021 (virtual). It ensures the BNA and the Festival are financially sustainable and that future events can go ahead.
It also allowed the BNA to offer a record number of delegate bursaries, grants, and prizes. This made BNA2023 more accessible to students, early career practitioners, carers, and low-income delegates, a BNA key performance indicator (KPI).
The overarching themes of BNA2023 were: credibility of neuroscience; Pier Review (getting more delegates actively involved in policy and advocacy); equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Symposia and workshop speakers were diverse, with all proposals required to align with the diversity requirements of the BNA’s Policy for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.
Career development is extremely important to BNA members and those engaged with BNA events. The introduction of a new app (Swapcard) enabled much-improved careers speed dating for attendees.
Other new elements included the Rest and Restore Room, 'Pier Review' area, Beach Clean, and Silent Symposia sessions.
We sought to integrate elements into BNA2023 that would help all attendees look after their mental health in the most effective way possible. The dedicated Rest and Restore room provided a quiet and calm space to chill out and recharge.
Thanks to the fun and eye-catching activities in the 'Pier Review' area, delegates were prompted to consider issues such as equity, diversity and inclusion, green neuroscience, funding, how to continue collaborations in the EU, mentorship, publishing, and credibility in neuroscience.
It encouraged ongoing discussions from sessions in the Festival programme (for example, a ‘lived experience’ plenary on neuroscience and neurodiversity) as well as commitments to ‘do one thing’ to reduce your carbon footprint, improve reproducibility of research, or engage with policy-makers.
The Beach Clean session provided individuals with a chance to do their bit to keep Brighton beach clear of litter. Approximately 100 delegates took part, and their feedback was positive: “It was great that things like the beach clean happened ... I liked the emphasis on sustainability.”
More than 300 delegates took part across five interactive and fun Silent Symposia sessions with friendly experts.
Scientific knowledge exchange was made accessible by having all events in one place and by removing financial/practical barriers to attendance.
Outcomes
BNA2023 brought together a remarkable 23 organisations. Their involvement went far beyond simple acknowledgment or a stand: each organisation convened at least one session in the scientific programme, was represented on the Programme Organising Committee, was able to give their members or associates reduced fees to attend, and was involved throughout planning the event.
The Festival was therefore a genuinely co-owned, collaborative event. It represented a unique opportunity for neuroscience-related organisations – and their members – to potentiate their knowledge, complementary expertise, shared goals, and ambitions for neuroscience.
Client satisfaction means that the BNA has engaged Outsourced Events to plan and manage the next Festival, BNA2025, which will be held in Liverpool.
About the Client
With more than 2,750 members, The British Neuroscience Association (BNA) is the largest UK organisation connecting, representing, and promoting neuroscience and neuroscientists across the globe.
The BNA is committed to creating a supportive and inclusive neuroscience community, making connections between academia, industry, the clinic and wider society, and moving world-class neuroscience research up the agenda.
About Outsourced Events
Outsourced Events is an award-winning Professional Conference Organiser (PCO). We serve as PCO for professional associations, trade associations, membership organisations, and the wider not-for-profit sector.
We support the delivery of in-person, hybrid, and virtual conferences and exhibitions.
To find out how we can help you please do get in touch: +44 (0)330 460 6007; info@outsourcedevents.com.
"In my 16 years working as an event co-ordinator, I have never come across a better-organised event. You make everything so easy for us!"
