Hi everyone. Mike here from the Society’s Conference and Events team.

In the interest of transparency, I wanted to let you know what’s going on with regard to RSECon25 (and our plans for future RSE Conferences).

We want to create a better procedure for applying to be the Programme Chair (or Co-Chairs) for future conferences. The plan is to open a formal call earlier in the year, and then interview the candidates before making a recommendation to the board of trustees. Ideally, we want to get someone in place by June (~15 months before the conference), so we can begin booking venues, appointing steering group members and generally get the ball rolling. (Note: the venue and chair(s) of the next conference will still not be officially announced until the last day of the current RSECon).

However, we are all volunteers, and there has been a lot going on, so we haven’t managed to get this ready for this year. Instead, we are opening a short call for people to apply, which will close at the end of this month (May). We appreciate that this is a very short deadline, but this is primarily intended to formally collect applications from those who have already expressed interest in the role.

Next year, we will open the call much earlier, giving everyone more time to prepare their application. We will also run webinars and provide additional information to help those who want to apply. However, we already have a number of people who have contacted us about taking on the role, and we want to appoint someone as quickly as possible so we can do everything we can to make RSECon25 the best it can be.

If you are interested in applying for RSECon26, make sure you’re signed up to Slack, our various social media accounts and the newsletter, to make sure you hear about the call when it is announced. You can also read more about the role and what is expected from the Programme Chair(s) on our website: https://society-rse.org/information-for-programme-chairs/.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.
As always, you can contact the trustees if you have any questions.