The 71st Annual Scientific Meeting of the British Society of Oral and Dental Research (BSODR) took place for the first time in Newcastle from the 2nd to the 4th of September. This prestigious event gathered professionals and academics in the field of oral and dental research at the Crowne Plaza Newcastle to exchange ideas, showcase research, and foster connections.
The conference featured a diverse program, including keynote addresses, oral and poster presentations, scientific symposia, and meetings of special interest groups. In addition, attendees enjoyed events tailored to various career stages, such as the early career research breakfast and an undergraduate student forum, which aimed to support the next generation of researchers. The event also hosted scientific prize competitions, a trade exhibition, a conference dinner at St James’ Park, and a public speakeasy event.
BeaconHouse supported BSODR in organising the event, providing comprehensive services that ranged from managing abstracts and overseeing the programme, to liaising with the venue and managing the budget. We also took on the responsibility of coordinating with the committee, handling the exhibition and sponsorship arrangements, and managing the event logistics. The team worked closely with the client and managed the event on behalf of the client, who have traditionally handled conference organisation in-house.
The event welcomed 233 delegates over the three days. There were 57 poster presentations and 67 oral presentations, alongside sessions led by four keynote speakers, adding to the offer for delegates. The conference also featured engaging symposia and special sessions that provided valuable opportunities for networking and knowledge sharing.
“Friendly approachable team with extensive experience in hosting scientific conferences which provided them with the knowledge is what was required to keep us on track for successful delivery. Furthermore the team were always on hand to answer questions and deal with any issues in a timely manner.” Christopher Nile, Newcastle University
June 2024 marked the second year of TechNExt, a five-day festival celebrating the North East’s technology sector. TechNExt is underwritten by Dynamo North East CIC, co-organised by Sunderland Software City and the event management is delivered by partners BeaconHouse Events. The festival attracted approximately 3,000 attendees and featured over 70 community-led fringe events alongside five curated main events. These events highlighted the best in tech across the region, with curated events including the inaugural Schools Challenge at Durham Town Hall, the Industry Dinner at the Fire Station Sunderland, Tech Talent Live at the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead, the Main Stage Conference at the Crowne Plaza, and the Festival Party at Revolución de Cuba.
This year’s Main Stage Conference was the festival’s largest event, focusing on the theme of ‘Tech for Good.’ 6 keynote speakers from across the UK, alongside 2 North East based tech entrepreneurs shared insights on how technology can address societal challenges, making a significant impact on the audience. The Schools Challenge also made its debut, engaging school children aged 9-13 in developing tech solutions to answer real-world problems during the summer term, with their ideas celebrated at the Durham Town Hall event during the festival week.
The festival continued its ‘Good Festival’ legacy from 2023, with quality, inclusivity, diversity, accessibility and sustainability at the heart of the festival.
“The festival showcased so many good things about the region. The vibe was a good balance between social and professional. Very well organised, great purpose, great format – can’t wait until next year!” 2024 Festival Attendee
We were delighted to work with Jim Richardson to plan and deliver the MuseumNext Live conference, which brought together museum professionals from all over the world to share ideas, strategies, and visions for the future.
In June 2024, we welcomed over 400 delegates to London. The three-day conference included an exciting mix of workshops, museum tours, and networking opportunities. The main event was hosted at the Royal Geographical Society and included a stellar line up of 24 fantastic speakers, including keynotes from Mike Murawski, a consultant and change leader, and Dr. Frederic Bertley, a scientist, scholar, and evangelist for innovating thinking.
For day one, delegates received a personalised agenda and spent their day attending interactive workshops, inspiring talks, museum tours or fun experiences in London. A jam-packed day which culminated in a welcome reception at the London Transport Museum.
We supported the client with venue liaison, registration management, supplier management, speaker management and onsite delivery.
Lots of positive feedback on how organised your team was, so thank you! Jim Richardson, MuseumNext Live
We welcomed over 270 members of the Opencast team to their largest conference and summer party yet at the Vertu Motors Arena. The team attended their Q2 conference, which kicked off with a performance from the in-house Opencast choir followed by the main plenary address before breaking out into 11 informative concurrent sessions.
Later, the venue was transformed into ‘Castonbury’, Opencast’s summer festival themed party, complete with live music from the in-house band ‘The Castanets’, Koroleko, a West African drumming band, and Monster Ceilidh, who filled the dancefloor with their infectious folk music and Ceilidh dances. Alongside this, we ensured there was fun for all, with glitter stations, a merchandise stand, a giant inflatable whack-a-mole, a silent disco, delicious catering, and ice cream carts.
BeaconHouse Events had everything in hand to seamlessly switch from conference/breakout sessions to a Castonbury party, managing full logistics from registration, venue sourcing and liaison, catering, entertainment, hotel room bookings, stage management, and onsite delivery.
“I loved it so much—an amazing night, and you can tell the level of effort that goes into the organisation, the coordination on the night, and the consideration for accessibility and entertainment. Loved it! Very representative of OC people.” Opencast Team
The NIHR Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) was held on 16 & 17 May in Birmingham, spanning a day and a half. This conference aimed to bring together national members of the NIHR school for knowledge sharing, research presentations, and networking.
Our role at BeaconHouse Events included everything from supporting with venue research, to speaker liaison, to post-event evaluation and carbon footprint reporting.
The event was attended by 192 delegates from across the UK, featured 20 poster presentations, and included 54 speakers. Through meticulous planning and execution, we ensured the NIHR ASM was a successful platform for collaboration and innovation.
“BeaconHouse Events are really good to work with. They are friendly and responsive and understand our needs. They’re always a step ahead with regard to chasing speakers and having their help on the day took a lot of pressure off, enabling our team to get more out of the event in terms of networking with colleagues etc. They went above and beyond, for example, taking our banner stands and other promotional materials to the venue in Birmingham (from Newcastle).” NIHR School for Public Health Research (SPHR)
In February 2024, the BeaconHouse Events team worked with the National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA) to welcome over 60 guests to an event at the Catalyst Newcastle. The event marked the culmination of the NICA UK-China Healthy Ageing project, with an exhibition and celebration of Chinese New Year.
The team worked with NICA to curate a small exhibition that truly celebrated the end of their project and clearly displayed its research to guests. Alongside the exhibition, we worked with a number of brilliant suppliers to celebrate the Year of the Dragon. From a traditional lion dance performance to crafting lucky hanging decorations to sampling delicious dumplings and bubble tea, there was something for all of the guests to enjoy.
‘Just wanted to say thank you for our event yesterday. The team were amazing, both on the day and in preparation.’
Sarah Nolan, Programme Manager, National Innovation Centre for Ageing
Attendees could partake in virtual networking on Hopin, followed by a simu-live screening of company updates that had been recorded in advance, and we then broadcast a live and interactive Q&A in the HQ streamed to Teams. The evening finished with a team festive Quiz using slido virtually and in the HQ and hubs.
BeaconHouse worked with Opencast to send a custom sweet treat to all OC people in advance of the conference. BeaconHouse managed fulfilment, registration, video editing, presenter briefing, AV, and onsite delivery for the event.
BeaconHouse Events helped NBS deliver their event, engaging their network in debate, discussion and making new connections. Keynote speakers included Dame Judith Hackitt (Chair at Enginuity, Non-Exec Director at HS2, Previous Chair of the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety), and Jonathan MacDonald.
BeaconHouse worked closely with the internal events and marketing team at NBS. Support included venue liaison, audio visual management, registration management (with a 200 strong waitlist for the event!) speaker and programme curation, exhibition planning, branding, supplier management and onsite delivery.
The second in a series of employee engagement events for CF Fertilisers, BeaconHouse delivered a Leadership Conference at Wynyard Golf Club in September 2023. The first of its kind for the leadership team at the Billingham Complex, the event was hosted by radio presenter John Foster and brought together 30+ leaders to mark 100 years of operation.
The focus of the event was leadership, safety and diversity with a keynote provided by leadership consultant Nicky Moffatt, who shared her leadership insights from a 27-year career in the armed forces. Next up was Eleanor Tweddell, a change and communications specialist, equipping delegates with the tools for navigating change at an individual and organisation level. A diversity workshop was delivered by 50:50 Future followed by an internal safety talk and panel with Q&A.
The day concluded with an energising team building exercise in the form of a drumming workshop, where delegates raised the roof with the sound of percussion and boomwhackers!
BeaconHouse Events managed all event logistics including the sourcing of speakers, programme delivery, suppliers, AV, registration and onsite delivery.
BeaconHouse Events were delighted to work with Newcastle Strategic Solutions on their first client conference. The Client Conference: Powered by Purpose highlighted how Purpose is driving Solutions to create positive impact both for clients and for the communities in which they operate – truly Powered by Purpose.
We welcomed NSS clients from all over the UK to their Headquarters at Newcastle Building Society. The day was brimming with content from 12 excellent speakers, 2 panels and plenty of networking opportunities, which were accompanied with delicious lunch and canape sweet treats.
The BeaconHouse events team managed everything from registration, stage management, AV, catering, venue liaison, and sourced goodie bags for clients to take away – the locally designed Newcastle tea towel stating ’40 things home to the toon’ was well received and a hot topic of conversation.
After a profuse of positive feedback, we look forward to planning the next one with the NSS team.
Rolling into Q3, we worked with the team at
Opencast to deliver their 3rd staff engagement event of 2023! We had 250 of the team join us at the
Civic Centre, in their Banqueting Hall for a jam packed night of company news & updates, networking, and activities.
From venue set up, to stage management, to giving a warm welcome at registration, the BeaconHouse Events team had everything organised. ‘Willy Wonka’ was the conference hosting theme and many delegates were delighted to find golden tickets hidden under their seats, and it didn’t stop there… there were many more interactive opportunities to win custom designed chocolate goodies throughout the conference!
The venue was filled with activities to get involved in, from competing against each other in a racing game, unleashing your creativity with Lego, creating your own tasty macarons, and screen printing your own tea towels. Another huge success of a conference and brilliant activities from local suppliers.
BeaconHouse Events managed everything from greeting, registration, venue, speakers, suppliers, AV, and onsite delivery.
“Thank you for all the effort, time, thought and (perhaps mainly) care that goes into pulling this event together regularly to such an impressive standard.”
Opencast Team Member
