What's on at BiCon 2011

What's the overall BiCon schedule like?

The main activities and events are outlined on this page in the form of the image outline just below followed by a day to day description. If you have questions about any of this please email email address removed and we will do our best to answer them.

Skip straight to: Thursday, Friday and Saturday or Sunday.

The pre-BiCon Session Schedule [42kB PDF] has now been released so you can see what is scheduled day by day (although there will be inevitable changes up to and during BiCon).

what's on at bicon in pictures, see words below for wordy description

Thursday

BiCon opens at 2pm on Thursday 1st September.

The bar will be open in the social space and you can drop your bags while waiting to register and get your room keys if you're staying on site.

There will be a history exhibition to look around as well as a craft drop-in where you can help decorate things for the Big Bi Birthday party.

There will be a Fun and Games session which is great for BiCon first-timers starting at 4pm.

The Big Bi Birthday Party (to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the London Bi Group's first meeting) starts at 5:30pm and includes a very brief welcome to BiCon and the team in the form of a plenary (gathering).

At 6:30pm there will be a meal break, don't worry if you don't know anyone, there will be Noshers' Networks running where people can meet up in small groups by what kind of food they wish to order in. Menus for local takeaways will be provided.

signage for noshers' network

Look out for these signs if you want to meet new people and share food.

During the evening the bar will remain open. An evening games space will be running in the Dining Room.

At 8pm there will be an opportunity to get to know people in Fitting and Misfitting which is a session designed for people to have a chance to talk and get to know one another.

Last check-in time for registrations will be 9:45pm.

We expect the bar and social space will close at 1am.

Friday and Saturday

BiCon's registration and info desks will open at 9am on Friday and Saturday. The social space, craft and exhibition areas will be open in the Lounge. The first sessions running in Stamford House and Shirley House will start at 9:30am followed by a 15 minute break before the second sessions of the day starting at 11am.

After a second break a short 12:30pm plenary will take place in the Dining Room, followed immediately by the lunch time meal break (remember the Noshers' Network). There may also be a few lunch time sessions which will all permit people to take food into them.

At 2:30pm the third official session slot of the day begins, followed by a break at 3:45pm and the fourth session of the day at 4pm. On the Saturday this slot will be taken up by the Decision Making Plenary or DMP – BiCon's AGM. The evening meal break starts at 5:15pm when again there will be Noshers' Network meeting points and time to cook.

The evening entertainments will kick off at 6:45-7pm, the bar may be closed for a short while between 5:30pm and 6:30pm to allow us to set up the entertainments. The games space will run again in the Dining Room and there will be a few evening sessions.

Last check-in time for registrations will be 9:45pm.

We expect the bar and social space will close at 1am again.

Sunday

The registration and info desks open at 9am alongside the craft, exhibition and social spaces. The first session starts at 9:30am with a break and the second session starting at 11am.

After a short break the closing plenary will take place in the Dining Room at 12.30pm. There will then be an hour or two for lunch (people often bring out all their left over food to share) and clearing up BiCon before you need to return your keys to our registration desk by 3pm.

2 Responses to What's on at BiCon 2011

  1. Steve Tomkinson says:

    Hi – do you know when the timetable for the workshops will be announced – ie, which workshops are on each day?

    Cheers 🙂

    Steve

    • Natalya says:

      Hi Steve,

      This is Natalya who is coordinating the sessions.

      We're not 100% sure when the schedule will be announced as many people don't offer sessions till the last 4-6 weeks before BiCon. I am uploading what we have offered to our sessions page along with requests for sessions we don't have a facilitator for yet.

      It will definitely be after 8th Aug, but hopefully a provisional schedule will go up sometime before BiCon itself. However it will always have some changes before BiCon and indeed at BiCon itself as clashes come up or peoples' plans change.

      I hope that helps a little, do feel free to come back to me if you have any more questions.

      Natalya