Conference fees
The Finance Committee has recently agreed the Society should use £40,607 of its funds to subsidise the costs to members of attending the 2026 Congress.
The Finance Committee met on 2 December 2025 to complete the work on the draft 2026 budget for the Society. Part of the committee’s responsibilities is to establish the delegate fees for the Society’s Summer Congress, being held in Newcastle University in July 2026. The committee wishes to share the methodology it used to set the fees.
It is important to remember though our conferences are considered a charitable activity, therefore they are not a profit-making activity. Our aim is to use our Society funds to keep the costs at a manageable level, providing a subsidy to bridge the gap between the actual costs of the conference, less fees paid by delegates/members.
When setting the delegate rate, there are items that are ‘above’ or ‘below’ the line. Above the line are the fixed costs of the venue, the rental of the space, the provision of coffee and lunch breaks, the electronic poster boards (£2000 on average), the welcome reception, any marketing costs (for example, delegate bags, printing, signage etc). In the case of our summer Congress, our provisional estimate is £97,457 in ‘above’ the line costs.
Below the line are the additional costs that add benefit to the conference - these are covered by a Society subsidy. For example, the costs of the speakers (which include their travel and accommodation costs and delegate fees). In addition, there are always various guests at conferences who we need to fund the same as speakers. For the Congress these combined speaker and guest costs total an estimated £20,500. Therefore, the total cost (‘above’ and ‘below’ the line) of hosting the Congress in 2026 in Newcastle is £117,957. if we divide that by the expected 250 paying delegates, the cost per head is £471 per delegate. The delegate fee to be paid by a member has been set at £350, with the fee for a student attending at £150. You can see therefore that the range of subsidies available per member is from £121 for a full member to £321.
Any additional funds that may be raised to offset the cost of the Congress are always welcome, and these will be used to reduce the subsidy required by the Society for the Congress, ensuring that the Society, whilst meeting it’s charitable objective of organising nonprofit making conferences, helps its long-term financial sustainability by not committing to an ever increasing drawdown on its funds.
The Finance Committee has therefore agreed the Society should use £40,607 of its funds to subsidise the costs to members of attending the 2026 Congress.
Subsidising conferences as a charitable objective is expensive, but conferences provide a valuable member benefit and lead to sound scientific outcomes and impact.