Sponsor Information

All involved in the DDD East Midlands Conference are subject to Code Of Conduct Page.This is not just for the day of the event, but for all presence of DDD East Midlands including Social Media.

Please make sure you are familiar with it and adhere to it at all times to create the most inclusive and friendly event for all involved.

Should you have any concerns regarding the Code of Conduct before, during or after the event, please contact the organisers. See the contact page for information.

Before The Conference

Tickets

If you have supported at Gold, Silver, Bronze or Standard Tier, you will have been allotted some tickets to the conference.

If you know who your guaranteed tickets are going to be given to, please provide us with their emails so that we can send a link to Eventbrite. If this is still unsure, we can provide a code for you to access tickets with.

If you have told us who to send your tickets to:

If you have an exhibition booth, please ensure that your booth will be covered by 1 - 3 of your ticket holders.
Please make sure the people assigned can still make it on the day.

If you haven't told us who to assign your tickets too:

If you have an exhibition booth we suggest that 1 - 3 of your tickets are given to those managing your exhibition booth.
If you don't have an exhibition booth or have tickets spare, you can:
- Give tickets out internally so your employees can benefit from the day.
- Donate a ticket to local meetup.
- Give a tickeet away in a competition.

Whatever you think is best.

Assigning Tickets:

Contact Jessica with the email addresses and name of your recepients. She will send an Eventbrite invite to that email address.

Any tickets you consider “extra” as part of your sponsorship, you can dispense as you wish. Contact Jessica if you want assistance with this.

Attendee Bag Items

Gold and Silver Tier Sponsors can provide items and inserts for attendee bags. These bags will be given to all attendee's on the day of the conference. You can provide swag and/or printed media (company adverts, job adverts etc.).

Attendee bag items should be provided at least one week before the conference. This is so we can prepare the bags before the conference. Please make arrangements with Jessica for drop off or collection.

PAT Testing

If you can, get any devices that will be plugged in PAT tested before the event.

Due to venue insurance restrictions, we need to be sure that anything that may be plugged into a socket on the day either:

Has a current PAT test sticker/certificate
Is less than one year old. Please ensure that where electrical items are less than a year old, evidence of this is provided.

This includes any laptop chargers or phone chargers.

We will provide limited PAT testing on the day, with speakers being priority candidates for this service. This service will be available between 7.30am - 9.30am the day of the conference. Registration for the event opens to the general public at 8.00am so there is a window in the morning where exclusively speakers and exhibitors can queue to get their devices PAT tested.

Gold Representatives

This section only concerns our Gold Tier Sponsors.

We will need some information from you before the event. As part of your sponsorship offering, we will say a short bit about your company but also present the details of a representative that can be approached at the conference. We will need the following:

A short brief about your company to be given at the opening presentation. A couple of paragraphs long.
The name of your represenative for the day.
The job title of your represenative for the day.
A photo of your represenative for the day.
Contact details that your represenative might want to share.

These will be presented alongside your logo in the opening ceremony.

Setup The Day Before Conference

Time To Setup

You will be emailed a time slot closer to the event, in which you can set up your exhibition stall. This time slot will be somewhere between 18.00 – 21.30 on the 25th of October (the night before the event).

We have to arrange this into time slots due to the limited vehicle space at the venue. If there are any restrictions you have regarding time slot, please let us know in advance.

On the day of the event, the organisers will be at the venue from 07.15. You may turn up any time from then. Attendee registration opens at 8.00am.

Parking

Please use the loading bay on South Sherwood Street during your allotted time.

The entrance to the South Sherwood Street loading bay on a busy road and right next to a bus stop. We ask that you do not obstruct this entrance, but instead, only park within the loading bay.

Please limit yourselves to using one vehicle at a time.

Lift Restrictions

Below are the lift restrictions. Please keep these in mind for anything you are bringing for your exhibition stall.

Lift	Dimensions	Max Weight.
Loading bay lift	Open topped x 1000 mm x 1470 mm	1000 kg
Newton lift doors	2100 mm x 1100 mm	1000 kg

Transport On The Day

Taking the train

Head to Nottingham Train Station

Nottingham Station is the mainline train station close to Nottingham city centre. The train station is a 15 minute walk from Nottingham Conference Centre, but for those new to the city, it might be easier to take a taxi or use Nottingham’s tram NET (Nottingham Express Transit) system. Directions to the station tram stop are signposted throughout the train station building. The Conference Centre is located between the Royal Centre and Nottingham Trent University tram stop. Take a tram heading to either Phoenix Park or Hucknall. Exit the tram at the Royal Centre, continue down Goldsmith Street taking the first right turn onto Burton Street where you will find the Nottingham Conference Centre entrance on the left.

Driving

Directions to Park and Rides

From the north, exit the M1 at junction 26 and follow the signs for the A610 towards Nottingham city centre.

There is a Park and Ride (tram) facility situated close to the M1 junction 26. The Park and Ride (Phoenix Park) site is clearly sign-posted off the A610.

Leave the tram at the Nottingham Trent University tram stop which is located on Goldsmith Street and walk past the main University entrance, turn left on to Burton Street where you will find the Nottingham Conference Centre entrance.

From the south, exit the M1 at junction 24 and follow the signs for the A453 to Nottingham city centre.

The Queen’s Drive Park and Ride is located just off the A453 (Queen’s Drive), follow signs for A453 / Queen’s Drive Industrial Estate and merge on to the A453 (Queen’s Drive). The Park and Ride is located on the opposite side of the road to the retail park and is clearly sign-posted.

Alight from the Park and Ride bus on Lower Parliament Street (Victoria Centre); Nottingham Conference Centre is a short walk away.

Car parks

Car parks in the city centre are clearly signposted from all major approach routes. There are two car parks close to Nottingham Conference Centre, Trinity Square car park on North Church Street and Talbot Street car park. For satellite navigation systems please use the following information:

Trinity Square car park: postcode NG1 4BR
co-ordinates 52.956785,-1.149316

Talbot Street car park: postcode NG1 5GG
co-ordinates 52.956143,-1.154433

Setup On The Day

Arrival

You can arrive at the venue any time after 7.15am on the day of the event. This will give you the opportunity to do any last minute set up and settle in before registration opens at 8.00am.

If you need to use the PAT testing service we are providing, that opens from 7.30am.

Signing In

All those who are looking after your exhibition booth that have a ticket through your sponsorship will have an Eventbrite ticket. On coming in, a crew member will scan the QR code on your Eventbrite ticket. You will then be directed to fill in your lanyards.

General Conference Day Information

Power

There will be some electricity sockets available on the day. DDD East Midlands will provide extension cables on request if you will need multiple ports on the day. Please contact Jessica: jessica@dddeastmidlands.com at least two weeks prior to the event.

Due to the venues insurance policy we require that any plugged in devices are PAT tested and have an in date sticker.

We can provide PAT testing for a limited number of devices on the day, but priority will be given to speakers for the available slots. Where possible please have your devices that will be plugged in on the day PAT tested.

Exhibition Stall Staff

We expect that you have 1-3 people working at the exhibition stall. These are included in your ticket allowance for the event. Please have these people register their ticket at check-in on the day.

Exhibitions stalls can be visited throughout the whole day, including during talk sessions. We expect you will be most busy during the breaks.

Health and Safety

There will be space behind exhibition stall partitions for storage. Passageways, stairways and fire exits shall be kept free of obstruction; all loose packaging must be removed to keep walkways free from tripping hazards.

Exhibitors exhibit entirely at their own risk. Nottingham Conference Centre and DDD East Midlands are not liable for any losses or damage to property which may occur.

In the opening ceremony, there will be a briefing about fire evacuation procedures. If you are unable to attend the opening ceremony please request this information from either Moreton or Jessica.

Wifi

Free Wi-Fi is supplied by the venue. There will be separate access codes provided for staff/exhibitors and attendees. Access details are provided on the day.

Catering

Lunch and snacks will be provided on the day.

All food is prepared in kitchens where nuts, gluten and other allergens could be present. As the menu descriptions cannot include all ingredients, please let us know prior to arrival if any of your representatives have a food allergy, and we will try to cater to them.

Exhibition Stalls

Space

The exhibition space you will have will be 3 meters x 2 meters.

What Is Provided?

Provided table size: 170 cm x 150 cm
Grey poster boards. 7 foot tall by 3 foot wide.

What Is Recommended To Bring?

Linen
Anything for decorating your exhibition stall and background screens (swag, banners, leaflets, promotional material).
(If included in your sponsorship) Banners away from your exhibition booth

Restrictions

Please avoid bringing any displays with automatically moving parts, unless you can be assured that they will not be left unattended
The height/weight restrictions of the lifts.

Packing Up Day Of The Conference

Collecting your exhibition items.

You will be emailed a time slot closer to the event, in which you can bring a vehicle to the venue to collect any remaining items from your exhibition stall. This time slot will be somewhere between 16.30 – 18.30 on the 26th of October (the day of the event).

We have to arrange this into time slots due to the limited vehicle space at the venue. If there are any restrictions you have regarding time slot, or you don’t think you will need one, please let us know in advance.

Location: We ask that you use the loading bay on South Sherwood Street.

PubConf - The Unofficial After Party

About

After the conference, there will be a special PubConf featuring some of our speakers and special guests. This evening event has comedy talks, music, food and beverages. It's great fun for all and we encourage you to come along.

Quick about:

The talks conducted at PubConf are 5 minute, comedy ignite talks:
20 slides timed to increment every 15 seconds. The speakers have no control
The top three talks will go into a final battle to win prizes. These three finalists will be presented with a ignite deck they have never seen before and given a topic. They will then have to come up with an impromptu talk on the spot.
Talk topics have an emphasis on humour. Often the content is not suitable to be shared away from the safety of PubConf.
PubConf is a separate entity and business from DDD East Midlands. As such they have their own Code of Conduct. Hence "Unofficial" after party. We are not involved in its organisation.

Find out more about PubConf in this blog post by Dylan Beattie

Rules of PubConf

What happens at PubConf, stays at Pubconf.

No photos or videos unless you have the speakers explicit permission.
No quoting talks. (Taken out of context, a joke can be damaging)

Age limit is over 18 years old as the venue is serving alcohol.

Contact

There are a number of ways to contact the organisers before and during the event:

Slack

You will be added to a DDD East Midlands Slack Channel. Jessica and Moreton will be reachable on there. Please use their handle for anything urgent.

Email

Using the @dddeastmidlands.com email addresses:

Rachel's email

Jessica's email

Moreton's email