Sorry - all spaces are now booked and this event is full up! But we plan to record the talks and share them afterwards to our YouTube channel so watch out for that.

Everyone is welcome at the 2022 British & Irish Botanical Conference (the event formerly known as the BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting). You don't need to be an expert botanist or a member of the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland (BSBI). This year's theme is 'A Festival of Plants'. 

The event is free to attend and it's also free if you would like to exhibit or to join a Herbarium tour, although donations towards the cost of organising the event and BSBI’s work are welcomed.

Provisional programme

09:30 Doors open for exhibitors

10:30 Exhibition opens - please enter via the front entrance of the Museum, on Cromwell Road. Go straight to the front of the queue and the NMH Visitor will direct you to the Flett Theatre in the Red Zone, where the Conference is taking place. More details and a map below.

11:20-12:30 Celebrating alien & native plants across Britain & Ireland

Chair: Sandy Knapp (NHM botanist & BSBI Trustee)

• 11:20 Introduction and welcome
• 11:30 How 'natural' are our alien species? (Chris Preston – co-editor, ‘New Atlas of the British & Irish Flora’)
• 12:15 Flash talks from exhibitors

12:30-13:30 Herbarium tour 1 & lunch (refreshments available to purchase at NHM cafes)

13:30-14:30 Celebrating plants – and the botanists who record them - across Britain & Ireland

Chair: Micheline Sheehy Skeffington (BSBI President-elect)

• 13:30 Plants of the Lizard (Colin French - BSBI County Recorder for West Cornwall) 
• 13:45 Botanical treasures of Somerset (Helena Crouch – BSBI joint County Recorder for North Somerset)
• 14.00 Ireland’s flora: a view from the Irish Midlands (Fiona MacGowan – BSBI joint County Recorder for Co. Laois)
• 14:15 Orchids and other wild plants of Shetland (Jon Dunn – author ‘Orchid Summer’)

14:30-15:30 – Herbarium tour 2 & tea-break (refreshments available to purchase at NHM cafes)

15:30-16.30 Celebrating how plants help us and how we conserve them

Chair: Julia Hanmer (BSBI Chief Executive)

• 15:30 Protecting the mountain plants of Wales (Robbie Blackhall-Miles – Mountain plant conservationist)
• 15:45 Plants and planning – do plant records pack a punch? (Tristan Norton – Hampshire County Council ecologist)
• 16:00 Forensic botany (Mark Spencer - BSBI County Recorder for Middlesex and forensic botanist, author ‘Murder Most Florid’)
• 16:15 Plants, conservation and me (Lynne Farrell – outgoing BSBI President)

16:30 Meeting closes.

The Annual General Meeting (AGM): in previous years, the AGM has been held on the same day as the Conference, usually during the lunch-hour. This year the AGM is a separate event; it is being held online on Thursday 17th November and you will need to book separately for it using this link. 

Identification Help Table/John Poland’s Vegetative ID Table: please bring along any specimens you find difficult to identify and challenge some of the best botanists in the country!

Getting to the Conference: the Conference is being held in the Flett Lecture Theatre, on Floor 1 of the Red Zone in the Natural History Museum. The nearest Underground station is South Kensington, on the District, Circle and Piccadilly lines. For detailed instructions, please see the museum's website: www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/getting-here.html

Please use the Museum entrance on Exhibition Road, which will be open from 10am onwards. Once at the front entrance, do not join the queue of people waiting to enter - this is for people who have pre-booked a timeslot to tour the Museum. Instead, make your way straight to the front of the queue and once inside the Museum, look for a member of the NHM Visitor Team or a BSBI volunteer. Explain that you are booked in to attend the BSBI Botanical Conference and you will be directed to the Flett which is on Floor 1 of the Red Zone (marked in red on the map here).

Please note that the NHM reserves the right to search visitors' bags at the museum's entrance.

Filming and photographs: We hope to record the talks and upload them later to the BSBI YouTube channel – we would also like to film and/or photograph attendees listening to the talks and viewing the exhibits, so we can use the footage and images for publicity purposes. Please let us know when you book if you are happy/ do not wish to be included in any such footage or photographs. We also encourage you to take photographs at the event and will set up a folder where these can be shared.

Refreshments: Attendees can use the museum’s cafés and restaurants for refreshments or you are welcome to bring your own lunch.

After the meeting we have booked a private room (holds 60 people) in a nearby pub, the Hoop & Toy, so we can socialise over a drink and a bite to eat before we head home. If you’re planning to join us, and you would be very welcome, then you may want to allow for this when making your travel arrangements.

BSBI Privacy Policy: We hold the information requested from you in order to administer this event, and to suggest future BSBI events that may be of interest to you. We will treat your information as confidential, hold it securely and will never pass it on to third parties.

Our Privacy Policy is available to view or download here:

bsbi.org/download/10855/