British Society of Animal Science (BSAS) Annual Conference 2024
Event/Conference Name
British Society of Animal Science (BSAS) Annual Conference 2024
Date
9 - 11 April 2024
Venue
Assembly Buildings Conference Centre, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Delegates
410
Event/Conference Name
3 day conference programme with 3 parallel sessions with a mix of invited speakers and abstract authors, poster gallery and exhibition. In addition to the main conference, a small sub-conference for the World Poultry Science Association (WPSA) ran alongside the conference as an additional steam
Social Events – Welcome Reception at Robinsons Bar, Conference Dinner at Belfast City Hall and WPSA Conference Dinner at Europa Hotel
Site Visits – optional visits for delegates to Thompsons Feeding Innovation, Belfast and Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough.
Our brief
The British Society of Animal Science (BSAS) was formed in 1944, is the principal learned body supporting animal science in the UK and Republic of Ireland. We work to advance the sector, improve the understanding of all aspects of animal science and ensure research and knowledge transfer has a practical and beneficial application.
Over three days, delegates explored the conference theme, ‘The role of livestock in our ecosystems and economy’, with the goal of finding solutions for pressures and how they can be alleviated and establish the future role for livestock.
Abbey provided end-to-end management for BSAS 2024, including and supplier logistics, sponsorship sales, branding, website, app and communications, social media management, full delegate support including communications, visa support and payment processing, speaker management including expenses and accommodation and abstract management and session submissions.
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Highlights & Challenges
Highlights
One highlight from BSAS 2024 was the attendance of Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Andrew Muir, for the conference opening session. This attracted a large attendance from delegates who were eager to hear from the minister.
Another highlight was the Conference Dinner held at Belfast City Hall, which was kindly provided complimentary by Visit Belfast as part of their subvention scheme. BSAS were keen to celebrate their 80th anniversary as part of the conference dinner and incorporated elements as an ode to the 1940’s, including a swing band, to tie into this. Other entertainment throughout the evening included Funky Doodles, who provided caricature drawings of guests and a photo booth with props.
Challenges
BSAS had originally booked the Assembly Buildings for their conference in 2020, which was then rescheduled due to COVID. This meant that venue sourcing and negotiations had taken place a few years prior to the conference, without us involved. It was slightly challenging to pick up on negotiations on behalf of the client
There was also the addition of the WPSA sub-conference running alongside the main conference, which had it’s own separate organising committee, programme and speakers. This required additional resource to be allocated to the conference to manage this element of the event.
There were also challenges surrounding abstract authors from LMIC submitting papers without registering. Our client advised us that this was a problem that they regularly experience, as these authors are looking to have their papers published in the conference proceedings without having to pay to attend the conference. We therefore had to enforce a strict registration deadline for all authors as the deadline to get abstract data over to the publisher was a few months before the conference. To prevent this, we had to disable invoice payments to ensure payment was made for all registrations, provide visa support for delegates from certain countries and implement a strict comms plan to inform all authors of the deadlines and that their papers would be removed from the conference proceedings and programme if their registration and payment were not received in time.
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Since working on the 2024 event, we have been contracted to work with the society again on BSAS 2025 in Galway, Ireland and 2026, location TBC
I would like to thank Abbey for organising BSAS 2024, it was a great event and I felt that I could relax and enjoy the conference, an unusual occurrence! The team, led by Rachel, worked hard and efficiently to manage all aspects of our 80th Annual Conference. Abbey are helpful and enjoyable to work with, taking the strain off our very limited resource. Thank you
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Maggie Mitchell, CEO, British Society of Animal Science (BSAS)