Calendar 2004
Round table discussion
Monday 12th July 2004 at RBS 42 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh
Monday 12th July 2004 at RBS 42 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh
The round table discussion was held after a round of feedback from the group on the three initial seminar events and the favoured way forward for the group.
From the responses we had, the events that have been held so far have proved to have been successful. The topics and format (presentations followed by a networking session) got the thumbs up and everyone who responded was keen to attend future events. In terms of future venues, there was certainly support for holding events outside of Edinburgh.
There was a mixed reaction to paying to attend seminars. We concluded that if we can run events without charging a 'ticket price' (as we have) then we should continue to do so. This led us to talk about sponsorship: feedback was broadly positive on having events sponsored, though almost all respondents counselled caution about how far a sponsor should be allowed to influence the content and style of an event. This was noted, and everyone on Monday was in agreement that sponsorship should be encouraged but 'handled with care'.
Overall, then, the message seems to be keep the events similar to what we've tried already, try a venue outside of Edinburgh and fund events through sensitive sponsorship rather than through ticket pricing.
For other events we could try, there was a mix of responses. The idea of a pure social event drew responses from 'absolutely not' to 'absolutely yes'. After discussion we came to the consensus that a social-based event (or two) during the year was a good idea as long as we did not take too much of a financial risk in organising it, nor let the 'tail wag the dog' and become a social-based group that sometimes did a bit of professional development.
A vendor fair received lukewarm support, but a seminar based on what vendors had to offer - particularly if we made it a bit more of a challenge than simply inviting sales pitches - seemed like the most fruitful way to take this forward. A salary survey was also broadly supported, though it seems CILIP are also trying to carry one out so the view was to find out a bit more about that before commissioning one of our own.
There was a clear consensus that website was a necessity. We shall get back to Freepint to explore their initial offer of support in hosting a site and we would aim, one way or another, to have a simple site up and running as soon as practically possible. There were other more sophisticated options mooted too, which sound like fabulous ideas but may take a little more time to get going. The consensus on Monday was that this could be done alongside the development of our starter site.
We discussed the name of the group. With most people SIN was very popular though there were some reservations that it did not identify us closely enough with business information, and that a reference to 'Scottish' was perhaps a bit inaccurate as most interest so far has been central-belt based. After a good discussion, the round-table came to the view that in the context within which the name will be used - in the industry, in IWR and so on - we didn't need to worry too much about defining our interest in specifically business information . On the 'Scottish' point, the feeling was we are open to participation from anyone in Scotland and the group would evolve as the membership did so, so calling ourselves 'Scottish' was a statement of intent and an aspiration rather than claiming to be something we aren't.
There was a mixed response to the question of membership. It was felt that so far we have been OK as we are but as the group grows and we organise more events we are being asked to e-mail more and different things to 'members'. We felt we need to define what we are, what we are for and to give people opt in/out options for various e-mails. Consequently it was felt that some form of membership - free, of course - was necessary. An action from the meeting was to investigate a simple way of forming, probably as a 'club' of some sort.
From this it became clear that some form of steering group/committee was required. The how's and who's of this was left for the time being until we understand a bit more about the most suitable way of officially 'forming'.