Running a community event
Member group events form an important part of our BCS community. They raise the profile of the Institute, garner the knowledge of our industry, and provide networking opportunities.
Below is a set of guidelines on how to run a successful member group event, and how the Community team can offer support.
Please note that all member group events must be set up on BCS Eventbrite only. Where an event is held jointly with an external organisation, please refer to the guidance in our Member Group rules. If an event is shared between two member groups, they should agree on joint costs in advance and inform their Community Coordinators.
- Guide to running a community event
- Download the sign-in sheet for event registrations
- Guides for running a virtual webinar:
- Data protection – Good practice guide
- Reserve a BCS London room/Zoom licence
- Request form to set up a new event
- Download our risk assessment template
- Request marketing literature for your event
- Download our marketing checklist to promote your events
- BCS events catering policy (coming soon)
- Find a speaker
- Download speaker consent template
- Download our BCS branded presentation template for your slides
- Download Black Circles Teams background
- Download Green Circles Teams background
- Download Green Gradient Teams background
- Download Black Dots Teams background
- Download our template event poster
- Request a student prize, academic bursary or competition at your event
- Inclusion officers can download a copy of our Inclusion Handbook (coming soon)
Share your event with our Twitter account @BCSMemberGroups
- Sharing the success of your event with BCS:
- Ask for feedback from your event attendees - ask your Community Coordinator to send out a survey when you set up your event using the event request form
- Write a post-event review to publish on your BCS event page and / or your member group website - please contact your Community Coordinator with your review and they will publish on your behalf
- Ask your Community Coordinator to share the event video with your attendees - and go watch the video yourself, leaving a comment or two. You can also share the link to your recording on the BCS Community to open a discussion with other members
- Request CPD certificates for your delegates - email your Community Coordinator
- Your event speaker will be eligible to request a gift of a year's free access to the BCS library of ebooks
BCS London Office
Why not use our BCS London Office for your member group or private business events? Host your member group events and meetings for free. Explore the venue
Note: when using the BCS London Office for your events, please ensure you familiarise yourself with our Visitor Instructions
The BCS Community London Venue/Zoom Reservation Form should be completed if you’re looking to reserve BCS London office space or a Zoom license for an upcoming event, whereby you have insufficient information to complete the Event Request Form.
The reservation form can also be used to reserve dates for group meetings (i.e., committee, AGM, etc.) that do not constitute a full event request.
Sponsorship
Sponsorship is useful for funding member group expenses and for strengthening relations between other organisations and BCS. Obtaining sponsorship is encouraged, subject to:
- It being consistent with the aims of BCS
- It does not conflict with or damage the BCS brand
- Support from any organisation, whether financial or ‘in kind’ (such as free meeting venues) should not be allowed to create an impression of undue influence on the conduct of the member group.
- Care should also be taken to avoid appearing to be promoting the interests of individual sponsors.
Sponsors who are exhibiting at BCS London must provide, in advance, a copy of their Public Liability Insurance. They will also be required to complete an Agreement for hiring space for exhibition. This can either be emailed direct to BCS London - bcs_london@bcs.uk - or to your Community Coordinator.
Please refer to our Sponsorship and Advertising Policy.
Any commitments beyond publicising the sponsoring organisation must be agreed with the Member Groups Team (groups@bcs.uk) on behalf of the Policy Committee.
You can find further advice on procuring a sponsorship on our Growing your member group’s finances page.
Download the BCS Community Sponsorship Process Flowchart
Public relations
Member Groups should publicise their events and generally raise awareness about BCS. BCS has a Policy and Public Relations (PR) team that can help with guidance for local campaigns.
Member groups should always confine their publicity output to news-related content (e.g. events, local awards, collaborations etc.), and be careful to avoid statements that include (or may reasonably be interpreted as implying) any policy or position-taking announcement by BCS - without first consulting the BCS Policy and PR team. External Representation on Technical Standards Policy (Updated 20/10/2023)
Links with other organisations
The Institute supports links to other professional organisations. Member Groups may seek to exchange access to each other's events as if a member of that organisation.
To avoid misunderstandings where there is a commitment beyond publicising each others events, the Member Group must agree a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
This provides a legally binding template for any activities that an Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) would typically cover whilst providing key protection for confidential information that may be shared with other parties.
The Non-Disclosure Agreement is binding on maintaining the confidentiality of the information and not on any actions or activities that would otherwise be the subject of the MoU.
It will provide you and BCS with greater protection when engaging in projects with external parties by preventing any information being shared until a formal legal relationship is formed.
We recommend that formal agreements are drawn up for any instance that involve the exchanging of money and will require formal agreements for any instances where personal data may be shared by a member group with a third party. Please contact your Community co-ordinator in these situations.
Non-Disclosure Agreement
This must be sent back to the Community Team, where it will be signed and returned to you. Volunteers are unable to sign the NDA on BCS' behalf.
