Hosting a TEI Members Meeting

Contents

The TEI annual members' meeting and conference is held every fall, and brings together TEI members, subscribers, and others interested in the TEI for two to three days of presentations, discussion, and workshops. Meetings are typically hosted by organizations with some interest in the TEI: often, but not always, TEI member institutions or projects. This document describes the hosting process and what is involved. For more information, please contact the TEI at info@tei-c.org.

The bidding process

Planning for the TEI annual members' meeting begins nearly 18 months in advance, with a call for bids issued in spring of the year before the meeting. Calls for bids are sent to the TEI-L, TEI-Members, and Humanist discussion lists, and may be recirculated more widely as well. The TEI attempts to ensure that the annual meeting is held in a variety of locations reflecting the distribution of TEI members, and historically the meeting location has tended to alternate between Europe and North America. (See a list of previous meetings. Bids are assessed by the TEI Board of Directors, which makes the final decision based on the suitability of the location and venue, the level of support being committed, and other factors which may affect the overall success of the meeting. The venue for the annual meeting is announced a year in advance, at the annual meeting.

The call for bids requests information from the prospective meeting host to enable the TEI board to assess the bids on their merits. The most important information to include is:
  • The level of support (financial and logistical) the institution can offer to ensure the success of the meeting. The bid should include as much information as possible about
  • The venue itself and its suitability for a meeting of this size and type. The bid should describe the rooms and technology available and indicate how many attendees can be accommodated. Specific room requirements are indicated below. For a meeting of this type, internet access (preferably wireless) in meeting rooms is essential.
  • The kinds of support the local organizer can draw upon to ensure the logistical success of the meeting: for instance, administrative support, or a staff member or other personnel who will be working on organizational tasks.
A sample call for bids is included below.

Information on hosting

In recent years, the TEI meeting has attracted approximately 120 participants, and includes a variety of activities requiring different kinds of space:
  • Plenary sessions held in an auditorium or large meeting room
  • Smaller sessions (20-50 people) held in smaller meeting rooms or seminar rooms
  • Up to six concurrent meetings of Special Interest Groups (10-20 people) held in smaller meeting rooms or seminar rooms
  • Poster session held in a space that accommodates at least 15 posters with room to circulate; ideally, the poster session is held during a break or a reception, and hence should be in a space where food can be served
All sessions typically require internet connectivity of some kind, ideally wireless, and also data projection equipment.
The typical catering arrangements are as follows:
  • One or two evening receptions (these are typically sponsored by vendors or publishers)
  • Coffee break in mid-morning and mid-afternoon, and coffee provided at the start of each day if not easily available nearby
  • If no food is available within a reasonable walking distance, it may also be desirable to provide for lunch to be catered (the cost might be included in the registration fee).

Planning timeline

The following timeline gives a rough schedule for the essential events in the planning of the annual meeting. After a host has been selected, the TEI and the local host representative work together closely on planning and organisation.

Year preceding that of the annual meeting (i.e. 2005 for a 2006 meeting)

Spring
Call for bids posted to TEI-L, TEI-Members, and Humanist
September
Deadline for submission of bids
October
Organizers are notified of the decision
Members meeting (late October/early November)
Formal announcement of the following year's meeting venue; program committee appointed

Year of the annual meeting

March
Call for papers, arrangement of keynote speakers
June
Announcement of registration; information available concerning hotel and travel arrangements
July, August
Registration reminders
60 days prior to the meeting
Announcement of election slate

Sample call for bids

Call for Bids: TEI Members Meeting, 2010

The annual TEI Members' Meeting takes place every year in late October or early November. We are now seeking bids to host this event in 2010.

The meeting this year (2009) will take place on November 11-15 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, USA. The previous meetings have been:
  • London, England, November 6-8, 2008. hosted by King's College London.
  • College Park (MD), USA, October 31-November 3, 2007. Hosted by the University of Maryland.
  • Victoria, Canada, October 27-28, 2006. Hosted by the University of Victoria.
  • Sophia, Bulgaria, October 28-29, 2005. Hosted by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
  • Baltimore, USA, October 22-23, 2004. Hosted by Johns Hopkins University.
  • Nancy, France, November 7-8 2003. Hosted by ATILF.
  • Chicago, USA, October 11-12 2002. Hosted by the Newberry Library and Northwestern University.
  • Pisa, Italy, November 16-17 2001. Hosted by the University of Pisa.

The site of the meeting has typically alternated between Europe and North America, but that is not a fixed rule. We welcome proposals from other parts of the world, and in particular from areas where new TEI communities are arising.

This year's meeting will be a four-day event (plus pre-conference workshops), with approximately 120 attendees. The three days of the main conference will include a mix of plenary lectures by invited speakers, round-table discussions, and conference-style sessions; there will also be a business meeting of the membership. The fourth day (Sunday) will be a closed session for members of the Board. Meetings of TEI Special Interest Groups (SIGs) may also scheduled for this day. Future meetings should assume roughly this shape, although there is considerable room for local initiative in consultation with the Board.

The TEI Consortium guarantees direct costs of the conference and meeting up to a maximum of US$5200 with special provisions for funding attendance in excess of approximately 120 attendees. The conference organising committee is also expected to seek additional funds from local institutions, commercial sponsors, and other organisations. A conference registration fee is charged to assist the TEI in recovering its expenditure and ensure that it is able to underwrite the cost of future conferences.

Bids should be sent to info@tei-c.org by no later than September 1, 2009, though institutions considering making a proposal are encouraged to contact chair of the TEI (daniel.odonnell@uleth.ca) much earlier in the process in order to discuss their ideas. Bids should include the following information:
  • The name of the institution(s) making the bid
  • The name, address, email, and telephone number of the contact person
  • A brief description of the facilities available for the event (rooms, equipment, technical support, food)
  • An indication of what financial support, if any, the hosting institution is prepared to give (for instance, sponsoring one or more receptions or pre-meeting workshops; payment of travel expenses for one or more plenary speakers; etc.)
  • Any other details that may be useful in assessing the bid (e.g. the presence of a conference on a related topic at the institution around the time of the meeting; the launch of a new TEI-related initiative at the institution, etc., ideas for a particular theme or focus).
In submitting bids, local organisers are encouraged to be creative: the TEI is willing to work with hosts to reflect local interests and strengths.

Further information about the requirements for the conference and members meeting may be found in our document on Hosting a Members Meeting and the Board's own Practices and Procedures document.

All bids will be reviewed by the TEI board, which makes the final decision.