Societies / Networks

We believe networks are critical to helping people share their knowledge and experience effectively. But we also know few people like the hassle of organising and administering them. So we have developed our capabilities to run networks of various types and sizes, from informal communities of practise, to funded networks, and administered societies.

We don’t get involved in the content of the network – the knowledge that’s being shared – but we work closely with subject experts (an individual academic, a committee, government panel, etc) to deliver the workshops, newsletters, websites, conferences, magazines, which members of the network would find useful, as well as any administrative work required to support the network – reports, financial administration, membership tracking, etc.

2 WMM Reception at Cardiff Castle 4_rs 2 CRE Materials Meeting 21_02_14 delegates_rs

Services

We can help with:

  • design and initiation – setting up new networks and societies, helping to establish what the network is for, who should be members, what benefits the network will deliver and how it will do so;
  • development – maintaining and / or developing an existing society, keeping an existing society ticking over, or helping it expand and reach new members while satisfying existing members;
  • finances – financial administration such as management of membership dues, advertising, seminar delegate fees, society expenditures and accounts, reporting externally (e.g. to HMRC – VAT, accounts, etc) and internally to management committees; and finding new sources of income – e.g. grant application and management, new income streams;
  • secretariat services – administrative and secretarial aspects of society back office activities – publishing news and marketing events, record keeping, minute taking, actions delivery, working with oversight committees;
  • marketing – advertising the network, getting people to spend money on coming along to its events
  • member administration – updating member details, recording new members and resignations, answering member enquiries;
  • IT & internet services – we can build websites, setup email accounts, and establish secure cloud storage, and transfer existing data to these; also use web / telephone / video conferencing as required to support collaborative working;
  • organising events, seminars and conferences – see our Events page;
  • marketing – attracting new members and delegates by advertising the society and its events through attendance at exhibitions / conferences, email, websites, adverts and listings with partner organisations, flyers, magazines, etc;
  • managing publications – designing, editing, copy writing, printing and distributing electronic and paper information about the network and its activities, including magazines, flyers, websites and press releases;
  • member engagement – tracking members’ expertise and activity, getting members to actively provide information, speakers and content, and supplying leads and contacts, making connections to their benefit.

Experience

Our experience covers the following activities:

  • outreach work for universities and internal knowledge sharing within companies;
  • delivering networks funded by government and internal company funds;
  • a country-wide engineering network, connecting academics in multiple universities and companies run from a Russell group university;
  • an international society engaging experts around the world;
  • organising programmes of up to 10 events per year for the same society, mainly in the UK, but including international venues, delegates and speakers;
  • managing and reporting to committees of up to 16 members, four times a year;
  • quarterly progress reports to government funding agencies;
  • organising a series of events to improve engagement between academics and businesses;
  • internal network bringing together internal expertise from disparate business units to highlight and establish new technologies  in a multi-national corporation;
  • networks involving between twenty key participants to hundreds of members to thousands of contacts;

When to contact us

We can help if:

  • you want to establish a network to promote your expertise and find new collaborators;
  • you are considering a funding application to establish a new network or support an existing one;
  • you’re part of a committee in charge of an existing society and you’re looking for help to deliver the Society’s activities;
  • you think your society’s activities are too small to engage an event organiser or to involve a secretariat; no society is too small as we can offset the size of any piece of work by the other contracts we have;
  • you want to establish a network and series of events in a new area of research to develop industry and research contacts;
  • your network or society is funded by an outside body and you need help reporting its progress;
  • your team of conference organisers don’t cover long-term network organisation;
  • you need help measuring the effectiveness and success of your network;
  • you need help delivering your responsibilities to a committee you’re sitting on;
  • you think we can!