Everyone is very welcome to the Irish Autumn Meeting and AGM, this year in collaboration with CEDaR who have generously provided funding for this event.

Saturday 12 October at the Lough Neagh Discovery Centre.

Programme
We have a great programme lined up on topics relating to Lough Neagh and the flora of the Northeast of Ireland, including the Cooley Peninsula and Rathlin Island.
The full conference programme can be viewed on our website at https://bsbi.org/irish-autumn-meeting-agm.

Doors will open for non-exhibitors at 9.45am when teas and coffees will be available. The conference will start at 10.15am and finish by 4.40pm.

Aquatic plants field-training event Sunday 13th October - Nick Stewart has kindly agreed to lead a field-training event on Aquatic Plants on Sunday, 13th October. Please find the booking page and further information here. 

Exhibits

During the conference we will have exhibits of botanical and conservation interest from our speakers and other bodies concerned with conservation and/or habitat management on display.

We would welcome any other exhibits to generate botanical interest and would encourage all participating botanists to put their interesting botanical findings on display.

There will be two display tables available for your plant specimens. These will be: 

The Please Help with Identification! table and the Sharing Interesting Finds table. 

Both fresh and pressed specimens are welcome for both tables. If bringing a known, or suspected hybrid, please, where possible, bring along the named, putative parents so all can observe any shared parental characteristics.

If you would be interested in displaying a poster of a botanical project you have been working on, your local botanical groups activities or any other subjects of botanical interest from anywhere in Ireland, please email Jen Farrar by 5^th October with a brief abstract of 50 words max, giving the title of your exhibit or poster and how much space you require. Due to limited space, large requests may have to be reduced.

Charges
Registration is essential but there is no booking fee.

If you chose to have the finger buffet lunch, there is a charge of £13 per person for this.

Donations

Any donation towards administration and refreshments costs is very gratefully received - however, this is optional, and you can edit the amount to whatever you see fit. The default currency is £ GBP, but if you prefer to donate in € Euros, you can do so here.

Refreshments
Teas, coffees and biscuits will be provided throughout the day (please let us know if you have any dietary requirements related to this).

Lunch Options

Pre-booked Finger Buffet Lunch – We have arranged with the venue that they will provide a finger buffet for lunch. The cost of this is £13 per person and must be pre-booked and paid for in advance of the conference and no later than the 18^th September. Dietary requirements will be catered for.

Packed lunch – You are, of course, very welcome to bring your own packed lunch. Unfortunately, any packed lunches or other food that you bring yourself cannot be consumed in any area inside the venue. We apologise for this inconvenience. However, if the weather is suitable, the venue has extensive grounds where you would be welcome to eat a picnic.

External cafes and restaurants – There are several cafes and restaurants available within 5 miles of the venue. These are predominantly located in the centre of Lurgan.

Joining Instructions
Details of how to reach the Discovery Centre can be found here: https://discovernorthernireland.com/things-to-do/lough-neagh-discovery-and-conference-centre-p675111

Please indicate if you would be willing to Car Share when registering, especially if you would be willing to offer lifts to people travelling by public transport to and from Lurgan.

Travel

With global warming and the high cost of fuel we'd really like to encourage participants to travel by public transport or at least car share.

Travelling by Public Transport:

Train services run to Lurgan from Belfast via Lisburn, arriving into Lurgan at 16 and 46 minutes past the hour. The journey from Belfast Gt. Victoria Street to Lisburn train station is currently a bus replacement service. See the Saturday timetable here.

Bus services to Lurgan are somewhat limited. Find route and timetable details here.

Car sharing:

To facilitate car sharing, if you book before the 9th October, we will send you a participant list so you can see who else is going and get in contact with any friends who are travelling from your direction or agree to pick up people from Lurgan.

If more information is required please contact the BSBI Botanical Skills Officer: Northern Ireland Jen Farrar: jen.farrar@bsbi.org or the Ireland Officer Bridget Keehan bridget.keehan@bsbi.org

Privacy Policy
On booking we ask you for your name, contact details, organisation, role and hometown.

This information is being requested to administer the event and BSBI will only hold the information to fulfil this purpose. Please see our Privacy Policy for further details of how your data will be handled and stored.

You can request to see the data we hold, request its removal or update your contact preferences at any time by contacting us. To do so, email enquiries@bsbi.org.

Image Credit
Thank you very much to Lorraine Hill, who provided the excellent photograph of Yellow Flag Iris (Iris pseudacorus) which was an entry to the Plants in the Landscape category of the 2023 BSBI Photographic Competition.

The 2024 BSBI Photographic Competition is still open for entries!

All amateur photographers are welcome to enter the BSBI Photographic Competition. Please submit your entries by Friday 25th October via the link on the above webpage. The competition rules can be found here.

Entries will be short-listed, and the winners will be selected by a popular vote by all those attending the Scottish Botanists' Conference on 2^nd November 2024.

Photos

We would like to take occasional photographs showing participants listening to the talks and viewing the exhibits, for publicity purposes. Please let the organisers know if you do not wish to be included in these photographs.

If more information is required please contact the BSBI Ireland Officer Bridget Keehan: bridget.keehan@bsbi.org