Wednesday

Location: Main gym, Sport and Wellness Hub

A breakfast meeting for the members of the para sport working group.

Location: Oculus Building

Location: Oculus Atrium

Hear from the students standing for the officer and director roles. Voting will take place online between 11am on Wednesday until 11am on Thursday. 

Location: Main lecture theatre, Oculus Building

Champions Mindset with Olympic Cyclist Ed Clancy

SPONSORED BY TECHNOGYM

A motivating, informative, engaging and thought-provoking keynote designed to align to key messages of success, teamwork, overcoming challenges, setting goals, continually striving for success with practical insights and videos of Ed’s races to create an energetic keynote with opportunities for Q&A at end.

Location: Main lecture theatre, Oculus Building

A 30 minute refreshment break

Location: Oculus Atrium

(All breakout sessions will last approximately 45 minutes)

1. BUCS Governance Review

Delivered by Jess Melling, BUCS Head of Governance

This session will be a focus group providing the opportunity for members to share their thoughts on the initial draft revision of the BUCS Articles of Association and help shape future revisions.

Target audience: Open to all, but will be helpful for BUCS Member Reps

Location: Oculus Building

2. The 'price' of paper: Sustainability at BUCS events

Delivered by Chris Lamb and Maddi Cannell, Event Coordinators at BUCS

This session will be based around a project the BUCS event team have worked on throughout 2023-24 and plan to expand on in 2024-25 as we aim to move to a more sustainable future.

The session will focus firstly on the athletics programme and the efforts made to reduce its environmental impact. We will then share some of our thoughts and ideas on how we plan to scale this to more BUCS events next season, before finishing with an interactive best practice section.

Target audience: If you are in are in anyway involved in planning or delivering sporting events at your university, whether as an Institution Administrator (IA), Sport Development Officer/Manager or otherwise, or are interested in sustainability and the environment, this session might interest you.

Location: Oculus Building

3. BUCS Insight: A year in review and future plans

Delivered by Cameron Masters, Insight Officer at BUCS and the Sport and Recreation Alliance

Since the establishment of the BUCS insight team last year this session will give members an opportunity to hear the impact of work undertaken to date, focusing on headline findings of the recent BUCS end of year survey and Club Committee members survey. There will also be an opportunity for members to learn more around the planned British Active Student survey taking place in November 2024 and priorities for the 2024-25 academic year.

Target audience: Anyone interested in insight work completed by BUCS and our future plans

Location: Oculus Building

4. How to develop a student workforce

Delivered by Olivia Warwick, Consultant at Continuum Leisure (A Sport England Framework Partner company)

This session will look at examples of good practice when looking to attract students into volunteer roles. Content will include recruiting students from diverse backgrounds, effective methods to incentivise long-term commitment, recommended training provisions and suggested ongoing support.

Target audience: Anyone who is directly responsible for managing and developing the student workforce

Location: Oculus Building

5. International Student Travel: How you can maximise international student group travel whilst navigating a variety of challenges

Delivered by Ian Boulger, Managing Director and Jack Walkmsley, Head of Events at Outgoing Ltd, with contributions from Gabriela Gretwowska, VP (Activities) and Christian Salisbury, Union of Students at University of Derby

Join industry experts, Outgoing, as they guide you through navigating the challenges presented with taking teams and clubs away to ensure students have the best possible experience, what to look for from a travel company and how to successfully run a student trip abroad. As well as this, hear about the positives of international group travel and how it adds value to student experience.

Target audience: Sabbatical officers, Student's Union Activities staff, Sport Management staff plus Sports Administrators

Location: Oculus Building

Location: Oculus Atrium

There will be an opportunity to submit questions before the session, as well as the opportunity to ask questions during the session.

Panellists include:

Will Roberts - Chief Executive Officer, BUCS

Sam Bell-Minogue - Director of Delivery, BUCS

Kath Russ - Non-Executive Director, BUCS

Katy Storie - Non-Executive Director, BUCS

Ella Williams - Student Director, BUCS

Location: Main lecture theatre, Oculus Building

(All breakout sessions will last approximately 45 minutes)

1. How to protect your sports facility investment

Delivered by Joe Shaw, Commercial Director and Hayley Wilson, Commercial Operations Manager at SIS Pitches

Join us for a session on understanding the cost and life cycle of your sports faciities. In this session, you will discover how to extend your playtime and return on investment through dedicated maintenance programmes and best practices.

Target audience: Facilities Managers, Directors of Sport, Coaches

Location: Oculus Building

2. GB Students Legacy65

Delivered by Marc Forrest, International Performance Manager at BUCS

A celebration of the incredible GB Students community and our rich history since the inception of the FISU World University Games in 1959. Recognising the significant impact of GB Students representation at multi-sport Games as a proven contributor to Olympic, World, Commonwealth and professional senior international success across the sporting system within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

In addition, future plans including a look ahead to Torino 2025 and Rhine-Ruhr 2025 and how our members, their students and workforce can prepare themselves for the international calendar.

Target audience: Anyone interested in international or performance sport, Head of Sports or IAs

Location: Oculus Building

3. Annual Subscription Fees

Facilitated by Fiona Dick, Chair of the BUCS Subscription Fee Working Group and Head of Sport, De Montford University

The BUCS Subscription Fee working group (formerly Affiliation Fee working group) will share their progress to date, current thoughts and the challenges they have faced, welcoming discussion from Members on the subject.

Target audience: Open to all, but will be helpful for BUCS Member Reps. Only one representative per institution.

Location: Oculus Building

4. Demonstrating the value of data insight to tackle inequalities and to deliver cost effective delivery models

Delivered by Jo Underhill, Senior Customer Insight Manager at Sport England

This session will cover how data and insight can be used to tackle inequalities, focusing on how we identify the need, plan the work and measure impact to ensure sustainability.  

It will also demonstrate the power of data and insight in a time when there are budgetary restrictions, making the case for being insight-led as an important allocation of budget, allowing for delivery to be based on the needs of audience, resulting in a more cost-effective delivery model.

Target audience:  Anyone interested in understanding how to use insight to meet the needs of your audience; from identifying needs of the audience and measuring progress, to measuring impacts and justifying funding. 

Location: Oculus Building

5. Foundations of Club Development

Delivered by Dan Tibbitt, Club Development Officer, George Dale, Club Development Officer and Molly Stewart, Club & Performance Administrator at University of Nottingham

This interactive workshop will explore essential aspects of holistic club development including governance structures, data and insight, financial management and EDI / culture strategies to help foster thriving and sustainable sports clubs.

Target audience: Club Development staff, Sabbatical Officers, Coaches

Location: Oculus Building

A 30 minute refreshment break

Location: Oculus Atrium

Update from BUCS Chief Executive Officer, Will Roberts.

Location: Main lecture theatre, Oculus Building

The following Regions and Nations Meeting will be held at this time:

East Midlands

London

South East

South West

Scotland

North East

North West

Yorkshire

West Midlands

Location of each meeting to be confirmed soon.

Dinner for all delegates will be served in the Rootes Restaurant.

The pub quiz will be held in The Dirty Duck, Warwick Student's Union. 

The bar will be open until 11pm.