All about the conference; registration and fees

Index:

About the Conference
Registration
Conference Fees
Fees in summary.
Additional vouchers: The UK Conference Package

About the Conference

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 2015 national conference attracted 466 delegates.  There were 16 streams and 2 workshop streams comprising 160 sessions of technical education.

Registration

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.

Conference Fees

The basic conference fees for 2016 remain at the 2015 rate however we now have to add VAT at the standard rate as GSE is VAT registered. Therefore the VAT inclusive fees are now as follows:-

Delegates from GSE member companies (see below)              £120 per day
Delegates from other non-member companies                          £192 per day

There is a £24 discount (inc. VAT) to this rate for registrations made during the early bird period (up to and including October 3rd) and there will be a £24 admin surcharge (inc. VAT) for late registrations made after the Friday before the conference (October 28th).

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 24th) however they will be charged at HALF the relevant rate, i.e. £60 per day inc. VAT for members and £96 per day inc. VAT for non-members..

Fees in summary.

The following table shows the fees per day including VAT at 20% for each category of delegate and date range

Delegates from ;-	Prior to 04/10/16	From 04/10/16     to 24/10/16	From 25/10/16 to 28/10/16	After 28/10/16
UK GSE Members (up to 5 plus 1 trainee) or others with vouchers	Free	£60 (members) £96 (non members)	£120	£144
UK GSE Members  (additional) and non-UK GSE members	£96	£120	£120	£144
Non Members	£168	£192	£192	£216

Additional vouchers: The UK Conference Package

The GSE UK Conference Package enables companies, be they members or non-members of GSE, to purchase discounted "bulk" attendance to the annual UK Conference.

• The Conference Package is available to any company, be they member or non-member, and offers benefits in addition to any benefits they obtain through being GSE members or conference sponsors/exhibitors.
• The Conference Package offers three voucher codes, each of which can be used to register at no charge for the two days of the conference during the early bird period and at a discounted rate thereafter (up to a week before the conference).
• Voucher codes have no monetary value and unused voucher codes cannot be reimbursed or exchanged (but may be offered free of charge to a client or customer).
• For non-members the Package also allows additional conference registrations at the members' rate plus the ability to attend other UK working group meetings during the period of validity.
• The Conference Package can only be purchased during the early bird period and is valid for the UK conference in the year in which it is purchased and for working group meetings during the following 12 months.
• The cost of the Conference Package is £450 plus VAT (£540). Existing GSE UK members will receive a 20% discount on this, namely £360 plus VAT (£432).
• Companies are able to purchase multiple Conference Packages should they so wish.
• Requests to purchase the UK Conference Package should be sent by e-mail to ukconference@gse.org.uk.