Comments on: Bags of innovation

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:07:42 +0000

I refused my bag, politely.

If conference visitors all did this, and I’m not intending to incite action here, then the sponsors would need to be more creative.

By: Paul Hollins

Paul Hollins — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:53:55 +0000

I’m with you on this Sheila, as you know we did quite well last year at the JISC CETIS conference, one sheet of paper and no bags, it was overwheloming apreciated by the delagates, could we go further this year ?

I must say though that I have reused the JISC bag, used it for the visti to the greengrocers (now there is a concept) on Saturday morning and yes I walked there too with the dogs.

By: Sheilamacneill

Sheilamacneill — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:55:16 +0000

Thanks guys for all the replies. I think this is something that will just go on and on. But hopefully small changes will start to be made. I’ll mention the transport thing to our management team, but I think you could be right Sarah – it might be a bit out of our reach:-)

Sheila

By: Sarah Currier

Sarah Currier — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:42:49 +0000

I agree re all the advertising bumf, it is sad that this is indeed still a necessary evil financially.

I am also against the handing out of yet more memory sticks- I already have a bunch of conference give-away ones and this is also a green issue- and the ones given away at conferences are generally too small in memory size to be much use to me later.

You know what I like at a conference?

– A nice bag that I can use again (because yes I do find them useful at the conference);
– A good map and up-to-date programme that I can carry in my hand, scribble on and refer to while running down a corridor when late for a session;
– A nice pen and a pad for taking notes on.

All of these can now be made from recycled materials, and yes, I would be willing to pay a little to get them if the money was going to a genuinely good cause, because I know loads of people *don’t* use them.

However, I think maybe many conferences would consider themselves to be a good cause. But when you know your organisation has already paid in the hundreds of pounds in some cases for conference fee, accommodation and transport this might stick in the craw a bit. For a free conference like some of the JISC ones: hell yeah.

How about a green discount for those people who come to the conference by train or bus instead of by car or flying? (Unless they carpool with other delegates maybe). Although I realise this is may sometimes be a bit unfair- what we really need is an affordable transport infrastructure that makes the train fare Â£20 and the plane fare Â£150 instead of the other way around! But this may be beyond our reach to develop as e-learning folks.

Nice post, Sheila!

By: AJ Cann

AJ Cann — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:24:57 +0000

Right on sister! I’m getting increasingly pissed off with the junk handed out at academic conferences. There must be a better way for sponsors to get their message across – at the moment they’re just pissing me off, which I’m fairly sure is not the effect they’re after.

By: Matt Jukes

Matt Jukes — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:43:13 +0000

To be honest the only reason the bags get filled with the glossy flyers etc is financial – people are willing to pay to have them put in the bags and it brings in much needed income at a free conference – and great as the idea of USB sticks is (and god knows I’d much rather go down that route), they cost more money than they bring in..

As soon as sponsors at events realise that noone takes much notice of all the stuff in the bags and thus stop paying the dawn of the bagless conference won’t be far behind!

By: JohnR

JohnR — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:12:44 +0000

Of course, I left OR08 bagless – they’d run out of man bags…

I am though in favour of usb sticks for delegates