S-TEAM is committed to running a substantial mid-project conference by M18 (October 2010). This is not very far away in conference-management terms so we have to start thinking now about where and when it should be. Our colleagues at DG Research have indicated that it would be advantageous to hold a combined event with the proposed European Central Information Provider (tender specificationhere). Their event would have to be in Brussels and would be around the same time as ours if all goes to plan. However, there are several possible sources of delay. The tender closed at the beginning of April so the successful bidder might be notified somewhere between October and December. Work might not begin until January 2010 or later which might make an Autumn launch conference somewhat optimistic - or very rushed. We would need to be in touch with the Providers by late January in order to agree a combined event. They might consider that the additional complication might outweigh the benefits.
We therefore need to consider how the conference would work if it were to be a standalone event. We have signalled in STAN that it will be a policy conference rather than a practitioner event. This will require us to issue invitations at least nine months in advance in order to get meaningful participation from the policy community. We also need time to identify who the members of this poilcy community might be.
The event is also important for us since the EC will be conducting a technical review of S-TEAM at that time, and will therefore want the event to be a success. We will have finished products at that time and will want to advertise them.
Should we decide to go for our own event, where should it be held? My suggestion is that it should be in Belgium to facilitate participation by the EC and related organisations, but perhaps not in Brussels which is expensive. The University of Gent might be able to host the event on a commercial basis - they did a good job for ECER 2007 and Gent is easy to access and has good facilities. We would not be attempting to run a huge event, probably around 120 participants, with the emphasis on bringing together the right combination of stakeholders.