Coxford Newsletter2
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CONFERENCE OXFORD NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2006 Welcome to our Autumn- NEW MEMBER Winter Newsletter We are very pleased to announce that two Bodleian Library new members have joined Conference Oxford, the Bodleian Library and Ripon he Bodleian Library is the main research library of the University College Cuddesdon. Do read about them Tof Oxford. It is also a copyright deposit library and its collections in this newsletter. are used by scholars from around the world. One of the world’s Conference Oxford is the only one-stop great libraries, its buildings include several of Oxford’s architectural enquiry point on availability for masterpieces. The buildings within the central site available for conferences and group bookings at the functions are the Divinity School, Convocation House and the University of Oxford and the Colleges– Chancellor’s Court. now representing a total of 53 venues. The Divinity School is a beautiful medieval building, completed in As part of our service we offer: 1483, it is the oldest surviving purpose-built building for university • A free venue search amongst our 53 use, built specifically for lectures and discussions on theology. venues, college and university Charles I subsequently held his Court here during the Civil War. • A support network dedicated to This historically-unique location is available to hire for receptions of meeting the particular needs of your up to 260 people, presentations, private functions and dinners for group a maximum of 150. Guests can be offered a tour of Duke • Advice and help on planning your Humfrey’s Library. meeting or day-to-day itinerary • Information on useful external local Those of you not familiar with the Bodleian Library may know more facilities and contacts about it than you think, as it has many times been used as a location for feature films and television programmes. It has Do contact us if we can be of any help in placing your conference or event. You may ‘starred’ in all the like to join one of our Familiarization Trips, Harry Potter films held monthly to see three of our venues. and several We find that potential clients find these episodes of trips very useful as well as enjoyable. Inspector Morse; in This autumn we are continuing our work The History Boys, with Davies Tanner, a PR agency The Madness of specializing in the meetings market. We King George, have already had articles in Conference News, the Daily Telegraph, Conference & Shadowlands and Incentive Travel, the myvenues.co.uk the forthcoming website, and Meetings & Incentive Travel. film of Philip Do look out for us in the conference Pullman’s His Dark press, check the PR activity page on our Materials; it has website at www.conference-oxford.co.uk and read more about the campaign in this been the backdrop newsletter for David Starkey in I hope that you enjoy this new newsletter Monarchy and and find it interesting and helpful. Let us Melvyn Bragg in The know if we can help you in any way. South Bank Show Best wishes, and other programmes. Sally Dunsmore Conference Manager http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ 2 CONFERENCE OXFORD NEW MEMBER Ripon College Cuddesdon ipon College Cuddesdon is a residential theological Rcollege, 5 miles from Oxford and with easy access to the M40. It was established to train men (and now women) for ministry within the Church of England and its former students and staff include several bishops and archbishops. Ripon College Cuddesdon’s historic buildings, set in the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside, offer a relaxed and historic setting, with excellent catering facilities, good accommodation, a choice of fully-equipped seminar rooms, and a very warm welcome. The College is an extremely attractive venue for residential conferences, corporate meetings, seminars and retreats. Its buildings offer good accommodation and a choice of fully-equipped seminar rooms for groups of varying sizes. Day groups of up to 60 can be accommodated throughout the year, with full residential facilities for up to 35 available during the College vacations. http://www.rcc.ac.uk/ Keble College Very successful first BritDoc Festival he success of the inaugural BritDoc Film Festival, held at TKeble College in July 2006, has ensured a firm booking for 2007 and possibly also in future years. The organisers’ objective is that the festival will become the essential annual meeting-place of every key player in British feature documentary production and bring together leading international film producers, distributors, financiers and British film makers. The festival achieved extensive press coverage and the feedback from those attending was very positive. Here are some of their comments: ‘Fantastic festival, brilliantly structured, in a fabulous place’; ‘I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed BritDoc . it was a long overdue and valuable event in a terrific setting’; ‘The intimacy, the atmosphere, the setting and the people all served to make BritDoc one of the highlights of my festival year’. www.keble.ox.ac.uk 3 CONFERENCE OXFORD Christ Church Spies Lies and Intelligence at Slavery and Sugar Conference 2007 Christ Church, Oxford OLEG GORDIEVSKY PROFESSOR SIR MICHAEL HOWARD hrist Church has selected topical and controversial he College’s annual autumn conference in its popular Cthemes for its Spring 2007 Special Interest TConflict series attracted over 250 participants in Weekend, fourth in the College’s series. Both are linked early September. The event again enjoyed a strong to the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave following from Britain and overseas, some guests trade in the British Empire in 1807, commemorations of sampling a Christ Church Conflict event for the first time, which will take place on a national scale next year. others returning for this the sixth event in the series. The two-option Christ Church Special Interest The list of speakers included over twenty experts, Weekend has attracted a loyal following—an encouraging historians and practitioners, headed by Professor Sir number of advance bookings followed the programme’s Michael Howard, OM CH MC DLitt FBA, Honorary Student publication in October. Participants can choose one of of Christ Church, who opened the proceedings. A warmly- two themes: the History Option is entitled Empire, Sea received newcomer was Bill Duff, formerly with the Power and Abolition; the Food & Drink Option is Sweet Special Branch of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, an Secrets and Strange Delights. expert speaker on the lessons learned in Northern Ireland during the years of IRA and ‘loyalist’ terrorism. Historians will learn of the appalling triangular trade The star closing speaker was Oleg Gordievsky, former across the Atlantic, the rise of the abolition movement KGB colonel and head of its London station, who had in Britain, the nineteenth-century enforcement role of worked secretly for British Intelligence for eleven years the Royal Navy and slavery’s contemporary until his exfiltration from the Soviet Union in 1985. resonances. Food & Drink participants will hear of the Though his talk was ostensibly an overview of twentieth- evolution of sugar from luxury food to cheap century Soviet intelligence activity in Britain, his most commodity, its types, varieties and by-products and its moving description was of his own escape from certain many applications in the British culinary tradition from execution. the Middle Ages. Sampling and a comparative rum At the end of the conference, John Harris, Steward of tasting are included. Christ Church and director of the college’s conference Lectures are given by Oxford tutors and other programmes, announced the 2007 conflict theme: specialist speakers and the event concludes with a Nature of War. This will be held 9–14 September 2007, Regency banquet in Christ Church Hall. Details are on led by Professor Hugh Strachan, Chichele Professor of the Christ Church website at www.chch.ox.ac.uk. Or the History of War at Oxford. Details will be on the Christ contact 01865 286848 or 286877; Church website at www.chch.ox.ac.uk shortly and a e-mail [email protected]. printed programme will again be available. 4 CONFERENCE OXFORD Trinity College New chandelier in the Dining Hall rinity College’s Dining Hall now has a splendid new chandelier Twhich greatly increases the choice of lighting for functions. It was commissioned by a Trinity Old Member, Peter Andraea, and designed and built by Dick Reid, a craftsman working in York who has made a number of spectacular chandeliers, notably for Windsor Castle after the 1992 fire. The chandelier is of gilded and painted wood, and in an early eighteenth-century style designed to fit the architecture of the Hall’s interior. Its eight lower arms, and four upper ones, are crowned by gilt dragons’ heads, echoing the dragons of the College crest. Also in summer 2006, Trinity’s largest meeting room, the Danson Room, became fully accessible with the provision of a disabled lift which also serves the College’s War Memorial Library. www.trinity.ox.ac.uk Begbroke Science Park An ideal venue for an Away Day xford University Begbroke Science Park is an idyllic Oconference venue offering modern facilities in tranquil, landscaped surroundings, yet is just five miles from Oxford. The Science Park is centred round a Jacobean farmhouse dating from c.1625, which has recently been sensitively restored and now houses the main conference room and an elegant dining room. A mature walled garden surrounds the farmhouse providing a pleasant option for coffees or break-out areas, and beyond the garden there is ample parking. Begbroke’s calm and seclusion make it an ideal venue for an Away Day. One such event was held here in May 2006 for the Environmental Change Institute. Forty-five people attended and delegates were able to use the facilities of the meeting rooms in the Farmhouse as well as relaxing and holding break- out sessions in the walled garden.