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The GSE UK Region Conference is an annual event which takes place in November for two days, generally in the Midlands. This annual event is organised by the GSE Conference Committee which is comprised of volunteers.
There are several keynote and plenary sessions and a large number of subject streams, each of which covers a specific area of interest. The majority of the streams are aligned to one of the regular working groups and the agenda for the stream is coordinated by the committee of that working group. In addition, there are several non-working group aligned streams and workshops organised by the central conference committee which also coordinates the overall conference agenda.
Where possible ideas and suggestions from participants attending the previous conference are used to form the agenda for the following year’s event. Topics may also be received from the various GSE Working Groups or may be based on announcements from IBM and other vendors.
The conference provides over 100 hours of technical training from IBM, other vendors and most importantly from GSE members themselves. Plenty of time is set aside to allow for networking with speakers, vendors and delegates during breaks and the evening reception and dinner.
Each year there is a large conference exhibition with stands from many companies who build and sell solutions relevant to the membership. The income from this exhibition and associated sponsorship enables GSE to offer five free places plus one trainee place per member company. It also allows GSE to charge very reasonable rates to other delegates attending the conference.
GSE works with educational establishments to encourage students to attend, as everyone is acutely aware of the increasing skills shortage in the z/os industry. Students are offered free places, a number of which include free accommodation. The conference includes a whole stream dedicated to people new to the platform.
The 2014 national conference attracted 459 delegates. There were 17 streams and 2 workshop streams comprising 167 sessions of technical education.
Please note that ALL people attending the conference venue in any capacity need to register in order to have a badge.
Please register using the "Registration" menu link above.
The basic conference fees for 2015 remain at the 2014 rate as follows:-
Delegates from GSE member companies (see below) £100 per day
Delegates from other non-member companies £160 per day
There is a £20 discount to this rate for registrations made during the early bird period (up to and including October 5th) and there will be a £20 admin surcharge for late registrations made after the Friday before the conference (October 30th).
Each UK GSE member company is entitled to send up to 5 delegates and one bone-fide trainee FREE OF CHARGE provided they register during the early bird period. Additional delegates will be charged at the prevailing member rate.
Voucher codes are issued to each member company for this purpose.
After the end of the early bird period vouchers may still be used up to one week prior to the conference (Monday October 26th) however they will be charged at HALF the member rate, i.e. £50 per day.
The following table shows the fees per day for each category of delegate and date range
|
Delegates from ;- |
Prior to 06/10/15 |
From 06/10/15 to 26/10/15 |
From 27/10/15 to 30/10/15 |
After 30/10/15 |
|
UK GSE Members (up to 5 plus 1 trainee) or others with vouchers |
Free |
£50 |
£100 |
£120 |
|
UK GSE Members (additional) and non-UK GSE members |
£80 |
£100 |
£100 |
£120 |
|
Non Members |
£140 |
£160 |
£160 |
£180 |
GSE is pleased to announce that we will be making special arrangements to welcome students to our annual conference again this year. The main elements of these are; -
Students who wish to take advantage of this offer should register in the normal way (once registration opens) and select "Student" in the delegate category drop down at the bottom of the first page. If accomodation is required please select "Student" for the relevant night(s) on the second page, however note that this will be charged for on Monday and Wednesday nights, probably around £45-50 per night but we have yet to negotiate rates with the hotel.
More information about the conference and the agenda can be found in these pages but if you have any questions please contact ukconference@gse.org.uk.
There really isn't one, however most people adopt business casual during the conference and more casual during the dinner and in the bar.
If you are required to maintain CPE hours to support any professional qualifications/certifications that you hold, the good news is that you can earn CPEs for attending the conference. A certificate of attendance will be available after the conference for those who request one - this can be used as evidence for your CPE submission to the relevant organisation.
Details on how to request a CPE certificate will be made available here nearer to the date of the conference.
If you have any questions in the meantime please do contact us (see the Contact tab).
Your name badge MUST be worn visibly throughout the conference for admittance to all sessions and during catered breaks and meals. It has a QR code on the back which contains your name, e-mail and company along with your delegate ID and delegate type. It will be scanned when you register to record your attendance and can be scanned by the exhibitors to collect your details quickly - they will always ask your permission first before scanning your badge.
Some badges will have a coloured stripe. The colour codes are as follows; -
|
Red |
Committee |
|
Blue |
Exhibitor/Sponsor |
|
Green |
Speaker |
|
Purple |
Trainee |
|
Orange |
Student |
On arrival at Whittlebury you should proceed to the GSE Registration Desk in the hotel reception area where you can register that you are present. You will receive your personal conference badge and welcome pack.
The GSE reception desk will be open at the following times
If you have reserved an hotel room you may then also check in at the hotel reception desk. Your room will probably not be available until 4 pm, sometimes earlier, but the hotel reception will check you in and hold your luggage for you.
If you told us during the registration process that you want to attend the dinner on Tuesday evening then there will be the image of a dinner plate on the back of your badge. If you don’t have this symbol on your badge and would now like to attend the dinner please see someone at GSE Conference Reception Desk. Conversely, if you do have this image on your badge and will now not be able to attend the dinner please also let someone at the GSE Conference Reception Desk know as we will keep a wait list of those wanting to attend.
Attending a conference like the GSE UK Conference is not just attending sessions and learning about the new and exciting things that are happening in IT today. Just as important is the opportunity to meet and discuss your problems and issues with other delegates, vendors and speakers many of whom are experts in their field. We provide a number of opportunities to do just this.
Chief among these is the Conference Dinner and pre-dinner drinks. The pre-dinner drinks, a free bar for wine, beer and soft drinks, will start at 18:30 on Tuesday evening. This will be followed by the Conference Dinner at 19:30.
On the registration form you were given the option to attend the dinner. If you didn’t take the option and would now like to attend please contact ukconference@gse.org.uk or the GSE Registration Desk on the day.
The other networking opportunities are:
This is your conference. Seize the opportunities to learn from and network with IT professionals and take back to your companies the knowledge you have gained. But above all ENJOY the experience.
Staying Connected
Whittlebury Hall is offering free Wi-Fi in all areas of the hotel. No code will be needed to connect to the Wi-Fi – just select and connect. However please be aware that with over 400 delegates with each maybe having 2 or 3 devices to connect to the Wi-Fi there may be times when network performance is not as quick as you would like.
The Agenda
We have structured the Agenda to enable you to attend a wide choice of presentations. If however, you miss a session we intend to have them all available on the agenda page of the GSE Conference Website. Delegates will be advised by email on the eve of the conference of the userid and password needed to allow access to the presentations.
Mobile Phones and Pagers
Please silence all mobile phones, pagers and other electronic devices when you attend sessions. You are welcome to take notes during the meeting on your laptop computer but please type quietly and reduce the sound of the keyboard click as much as possible. Such noises during the session are very distracting to both the speaker and the other attendees. We appreciate your cooperation.
Session and Conference Evaluation
This year we will be taking session evaluation entirely electronically. Each session has an assocaited feebdack site, http://tyc/gse/org/uk/feedback/NN, where "NN" is the session code. There will also be QR codes which will take you directly to the feedback page on the session signs outside the room and hopefully on the first and last slides of most presentations.
An overall conference evaluation form has been placed in your welcome pack. Please complete it after your final session, add any additional comments you want to make and hand in to the GSE registration desk. These forms and your written comments will assist us in improving future conferences.
All completed feed back entries will go into a draw each day with three lucky winners receiving a gift.
Vendor Exhibition
The vendors have once again supported the GSE Annual Conference superbly. We have 35 of them on view and would encourage you to visit them all to discuss the products and services they offer. Without their support we would not be able to keep the cost of attending the conference as low as it is!