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It’s time folks! Time to put forward your excellent ideas for sessions that will plump out the BIG Event with succulent morsels of professional development.

The BIG Event, taking place on 24-26 July 2013 at Glasgow Science Centre provides an unmissable opportunity to squeeze the skills and ideas out of all the STEM engagement people you can in a short space of time. It’s like power juice for STEM communicators.

If you have a project you would like to share with others – because it’s brilliant, because it’s in progress or because it needs love and support from like-minded people – then get it out to your peers. This is the chance to meet people who can help you in your STEM engagement work, partner your project, solve your problem, help you get funding, teach you skills, find you a new job, or simply feel your pain. Don’t just sit in the audience – join the show by proposing a session of your own. The BIG Event is all about sharing skills and experiences so why not share yours?

To give you some ideas, really good past sessions include:

• Workshops to develop themed trails or create props and simple exhibits
• Training to improve presentations, like stage presence, prop handling and use of humour and emotion
• Sessions inviting you to have a good play with your content and explore its potential
• Sessions to help you market your wares or sell yourself to the employer of your dreams
• Opportunities to get into the minds of funders
• Delegates bringing their works-in-progress to get your help in refining them
• Workshops to create collaborative content for an activity, like busking, outdoors, water, dialogue, U3A, 14-19, Foundation Stage, collections, you name it…

The call for session proposals is now open. Propose your session online by following the link below.

If you haven’t put forward a session before and would like to discuss your ideas first, please contact Rachel Mason event@big.uk.com

Propose a Session    

It's not too late to join other newbie science communicators at our Little Event at Thinktank on 7th January. We have a handful of places left at just £45 for BIG members. The full programme is now available to view online at www.big.uk.com/littleevent13.

Glasgow Science Centre will play host to the BIG Event 2013! It's the Event's first time in Scotland and the iconic buildings of glass, titanium and steel, the centre will provide an unforgettable backdrop.The annual British Interactive Group Conference will be held on 24-26 July. 

Thanks to generous support from Graphic Science and BIG, we are able to offer 10 bursaries worth £100 each which includes 1 year’s BIG membership, registration fees for the Little Event and £25 towards travel expenses.

The Little Event returns to Thinktank in Birmingham on Monday 7 January from 10am - 5pm. It’s for people who are relatively new to STEM communication, whether they work in a science centre or museum, volunteer for a festival, are involved in university outreach, or do anything else to engage people with sciences. It’s a lot like the BIG Event, but a bit smaller, and all crammed into one busy day. There will be 4 sessions, each focusing on developing a different skill, delivered by experienced science communicators following our usual hands-on approach.

The Little Event is like the BIG Event – only little! It's a one-day conference aimed at early-career STEM communicators who are keen to suck the knowledge and experience out of those who have been at it for ages. 

Find out more or book at www.big.uk.com/littleevent13

Just three days left to the BIG Event 2012 in York. The Twitter hashtag is #bigevent12 - who reckons we can get it trending?

Register now for the BIG Best Demo Competition 2012! Now in its 16th year we invite you to demonstrate something that really lights your fire and you just can’t help but show off to your peers. You have three minutes, a welcoming audience and the chance to win the prestigious Best Demo Award to display on your desk, in your shed or sliding across the dashboard of your van.
www.big.uk.com/bigevent

It’s that time of year for getting out and about and exploring. So I just wanted to remind you all that your BIG Membership Card allows you free entry to selected UK Science Centres and Museums.  For a full and up-to-date list of participating Centres, visit www.big.uk.com/benefits.

Fancy playing a key role in the future direction of THE skills-sharing network for STEM communicators and engagement professionals? Places on BIG’s Executive Committee are up for grabs and will be appointed at the AGM in July. A chance to hone your management skills! Find out more www.big.uk.com/agm

The BIG Event is a prestigious conference that brings together 150+ STEM engagement and associated professionals from across the UK to share skills and experiences, develop professional links and keep up-to-date with the STEM engagement field.

Three whole days of workshops, shows and discussion groups covering topics such as:

- Making the most of emotions in science communication
- Getting into teachers’ heads, universities’ heads and even your own head
- Looking after your intellectual property
- Explorations in training staff
- How to get money
- How to deal with not getting money
- Marketing on a shoestring
- Workshops on competitions, maths, dialogue, physics, Olympics, exhibits …

At just £100 a day (which includes annual membership and a nice lunch) what are you waiting for?

www.big.uk.com/bigevent

BIG Event 2012 - National Railway Museum, York 25 - 27 July