BIG Event 2025 - ON SALE NOW!

Royal Institution, London, UK
16-18th July 2025 

Home of the Christmas Lectures, Faraday and Discourses, BIG is thrilled to be returning to The Royal Institution in 2025. It's a triple BIG year for the RI as 2025 marks the 200th anniversary of Discourses and the Christmas Lectures.

We'll have 2 and a half days of workshops, sessions, discussion and keynotes, as well as plenty of time for networking throughout the event!

The BIG Event has a Code of Conduct, which all members and attendees are expected to follow. Our biggest focus for the event is that all attendees have a good experience, with any complaints taken seriously and handled in strict confidence.

The content for the BIG Event is created by the members. And the people who say they get the most out of it are the people who contribute the content.

This will be a hybrid BIG Event. As many sessions as possible will be delivered as hybrid events, so if you can't get to London in-person, you can still join us online.

To find out what is happening at the event, check out our Draft Programme site, which includes information on session timings, the speakers involved and how to suggest yourself to be part of a session.

Early Bird Registration is open now until 5th May!

Your registration to the BIG Event entitles you to a free 12-month membership to BIG, with all its benefits. 

General event registration (non-speakers)

• Full conference (all 3 days including Thursday's evening activities and conference dinner) - £350 early bird rate* (£405 after 5th May, 2025)
• 2-days only - £310 (Thursday evening's activities and dinner are not included, but can be added to your basket for £85) - these tickets become available after 5th May 2025
• 1-day only - £160 (Thursday evening's activities and dinner are not included, but can be added to your basket for £85) - these tickets become available after 5th May 2025

Tips to save money

As amazing as the RI is, it also happens to be in a rather expensive part of London. But, BIG being the frugal organisation it is, has some tips on ways you can attend the BIG Event at the RI for less.

1. Book the BIG Event Early! Booking opens 31 March 2025 and the Early Bird gets the discount, so plan ahead and book early.

2. Save this date in your diary - 23 April 2025. This is 12 weeks before the BIG Event and is about the time that Advance train fares are available. These are generally cheaper than waiting closer to the time to book your train travel. Have a look at this excellent article from Money Saving Expert on ways to save on your train travel: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-train-tickets/ The article has lots of great tips, even if you are reading this after April 23, so still check it out. Your pocketbook will thank you.

3. Book accommodation early. Like train travel, the sooner you can book your accommodation, the cheaper it will be. BIG is working on sorting out some cheaper University Accommodation. As soon as we've got the details, we'll post them here. However, if University Accommodation doesn't float your boat - BIG would like to remind you that London has great bus and underground services. So don't hesitate to book a hotel/Airbnb that is further out of central London. 

4. Get your employer to pay for your ticket. If your employer needs more convincing to pay for you to attend BIG...

5. Apply for the RI's Family Fun Day. BIG Event Delegates are being encouraged to contribute to the RI's FFD, a day when the RI opens it's doors to approximately 600 people - families with kids between 6 and 12 - to deliver activities and demonstrations all across the building. See this page for more details and deadlines. 

6. Apply for a Bursary. The BIG Event Bursary will cover your ticket, BIG Membership, accommodation, travel and any other reasonable expenses. 

Accommodation

We have kindly been given access to summer accommodation at King's College London for those wanting cost-effective and extremely convenient accommodation at the BIG Event. These rooms will be on a first-come-first-served basis and are booked entirely through the KCL team. 

for full details, see our Accommodation page 

Bursaries 

BIG bursaries provide financial assistance to enable members to attend one of our events.

BIG offers a handful of bursary places which will:

• pay registration fees for the BIG Event
• one year's BIG membership
• give reasonable expenses to support your attendance at the BIG Event

For full details and to apply, see our Bursaries page

Cancellation and Refund Policy

Payment for all events must be received by the day of the event. If payment is not received by the day of the event, your attendance cannot be honoured at the event.

We can, by prior arrangement only, honour your attendance at the event if an official purchase order number has been generated and is being processed by your organisation’s finance department.

If you wish to cancel your registration:

•  a full refund will be issued for cancellations at least 30 days prior to the event.

• 50% refund will be issued for for cancellations at least 15 days prior to the event. 

• 25% refund will be issued for cancellations made at least 5 days prior to the event. 

• cancellations made less than 5 days prior to the event will not be refunded.

• if your registration was paid by Stripe, any refunds or part-refunds will be minus the small fee that BIG pays to Stripe.

• you may transfer your registration (and membership) to a colleague for no charge with up to 24-hours’ notice of the event.

In the event of non-attendance at the event, refunds will not be given.

BIG Event Speaker Blog

Read 2024 speaker and bursary recipient Thaddeus Papke's blog about his experience here.