Cambridge Science Festival coordinators page

Welcome to the Cambridge Science Festival coordinators' page

Tips and hints

Information on public engagement and impact and a few thoughts and ideas on how to run a successful event.

Mailing list 

We send out updates to all event coordinators on a regular basis. If you would like to be added, please email us.

Being part of the Science Festival

• How the Festival works - an overview of the Festival including answers to frequently asked questions about the Festival, what goes into holding an event and funding and marketing.
• Guidance for attending the Cambridge Science Festival - this document outlines what is expected of members of the public attending the Science Festival. It is not legally binding but may be useful to include on your own websites to make it clear what will and will not be tolerated.
• Cambridge Science Festival activies do not meet criteria for requiring DBS checks. Festival DBS Check Policy.
• Thoughts on how to make your event accessible, how you share information on the day and on recording attendance figures.

A preliminary bit of blurb for the 2020 Cambridge Science Festival

With events from astronomy to zoology, the 2020 Cambridge Science Festival welcomes everyone to explore and discuss science through talks, hands-on activities, performances, exhibitions, tours and films. Cambridge Science Festival runs from 9-22 March 2020 with bookings open from 10 February 2020. Find out more at: www.sciencefestival.cam.ac.uk and follow us on twitter @CamScience #CamSciFest

Dates and deadlines

Use of the Cambridge Science Festival logo

Please contact us by email to request copies of the Cambridge Science Festival logo and ensure you follow our guidelines for use.  The colour is: CMYK 4/27/83/0, RGB 243/189/72 and pantone 142. Links to poster templates can be found below.

Submitting an event for the Festival

• University departments must submit their events into our Event Management System (EMS). EMS will open early September.
• External organisations should contact the Science Festival Coordinator as soon as possible to discuss their involvement in the Festival.
• Please adhere to the University of Cambridge editorial house style when entering content to the EMS.

Booking a venue

You will need to book a venue for your event. Here are a few suggestions of some of the available rooms.

• Mill Lane Lecture Rooms: various different sized lecture theatres with capacities ranging from ~100 to ~240 seats. The Festival team generally use this space, please contact us if you would like access, we may be able to help with availability
• Lady Mitchell Hall: large capacity venue with 500 seats, may be available on evenings during the Festival
• Babbage Lecture Theatre: large capacity venue, ~450 seats, may be available during the Festival (AV charge payable)
• West Road Concert Hall: large capacity venue of 500, may be available on evenings during the Festival (venue hire charge payable)
• Various College lecture theatres (most will charge venue hire). Search Meet Cambridge for more details
• University Centre: Hicks Room and the Cormack Room both have a capacity of 200 (venue hire charge payable)
• Departmental and Faculty buildings

Event bookings

• The Festival team run the main telephone information line - 01223 766766, and the Festival website.
• Bookings for Science Festival open ~ one month before the Festival starts. Booking lines will be open Monday to Friday from 11am until 3pm.
• The Festival team take bookings for centrally coordinated events through the eventbrite system.
• The Festival team can support coordinators by taking bookings on their behalf (subject to availability and sufficient prior notice). The Festival team will grant coordinators subuser status, upon request, so they can check booking numbers and any special access requirements, and print out door lists. We collect: name of the person making the booking, email address, postcode, access requirements.
• We recommend over booking by 25% to compensate for no-shows. For all bookings set up centrally, we overbook by 25% on venues with a capacity of 20 people or over.
• Coordinators can take bookings directly but must ensure they are ready to take bookings on the same date as the central booking opens and that their bookings do not open before this date. They are also asked to update the Festival team when their event is fully booked so the website can be updated with this information.
• Once fully booked, we list events as having 'limited tickets available on the door', for venues with capacity for 20 or more. This can help fill spaces left by no-shows on the day. If you would rather it be listed as simply 'fully booked', however, please let us know.

Publicising your event

All events accepted to the Festival are publicised online, through our printed programme and through the University What's On listing service. Please also publicise your own event yourself. Please adhere to the University of Cambridge style guidelines.

We are active on twitter - https://twitter.com/camscience, if you are tweeting about the Festival and your event please use our Festival hashtag  so we can track tweets. We are also active on Facebook, please publicise your events at http://www.facebook.com/cambridgesciencefestival or send us the information and we will upload it on your behalf.

• Please request the Cambridge Science Festival logo by email to csf@admin.cam.ac.uk
• Event posters templates - version one without image (powerpoint), version two with image (powerpoint file).  If you would like the more advanced indesign file, please email us at csf@admin.cam.ac.uk
• Event signage - A3 (publisher)

Attendance lists

If the festival office has taken the bookings for your event and you would like print an attendance list please contact csf@admin.cam.ac.uk in good time to request access as a sub-user. We cannot grant sub-user access if the email address you provide is already linked to an Eventbrite account, so please bear that in mind when you get in touch.

• Once you have access you can download a PDF copy. Booking for all events closes 1 hour before the event starts, so please be aware of this when printing your list as it may be out of date. How-to print an attendance list
• The best way to ensure you have the most up-to-date version is to download the Eventbrite Organiser app to your phone, it is free and easy to use. How-to view attendance list on mobile
• You can also check if any of your attendees have access requirements this will be helpful to do before you event so that you can prepare. How-to view access requirements for attendees

If you have any trouble with this please do get in touch and we will do our best to help.

Evaluation

Please collect feedback on your activity and send the resulting data to us following the Science Festival. Use our standard evaluation card (double-sided, 1 per A4 printout) / evaluation card (double-sided 4 per A4 print out, 100% no scqaling required) or contact us if you require hard copies. Please note, for events being booked centrally via eventbrite, all participants will receive this form by email after the event has ended.

Please also make a note of interesting conversations you have had and record the number of people who attended your event.

Photography and copyright compliance

• If you need copyright free photos to illustrate your event, use the Creative Commons area on Flickr and make sure that you credit the photographer.
• Please adhere guidelines on copyright compliance. If you are internal to the University of Cambridge, information can be found on the Copyright Compliance page in the Guidance Section of the Legal Services website.
• If you are internal to the University please use the following release to obtain permission for video, photography and creative output - adults and children
• If you are taking photographs or recording your event, ensure you have perimeter signs within the space to let people know this is happening.

Volunteers

• Please recruit your own volunteers for your event. If you get really stuck we may be able to help, get in touch.
• Ensure you read our volunteer briefing notes for information on procedures and health & safety requirements and ask volunteers to sign-in.

Risk assessments and Public Liability Insurance

Before you write your risk assessment, please have a look at the Safety Office risk management presentation and the HSE Brief guide to controlling risks in the workplace

We produce risk assessments for:

• Science Festival as a whole
• Science Festival talks

We require risk assessment forms to be completed and submitted for all Festival events. Please feel free to adapt and use these templates:

• Overall Festival risk assessment template for co-ordinators (Word)
• Talks risk assessment template for co-ordinators (Word)

If you use these templates, please ask your Department Safety Officer to sign them off before forwarding a copy to the Festivals Team. Please also ensure that all staff and volunteers involved in running the event receive a copy of your risk assessment before the event begins in order to familiarise themselves with arrangements.

For more details on how to complete this, see the University Safety Service Risk Assessment Handbook.

If you are an external organisation you must hold Public Liability Insurance. Also where using external suppliers, they must hold public liability insurance for their services. Evidence of this must be sent to the Science Festival team before your event.

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