Cave Techology Symposium - important update

[David Gibson]

See http://british-caving.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=354 for information about the date and venue

This message has now been superseded. The event WILL be going ahead as planned.

Mike Bedford, Lecture Secretary for the BCRA Cave Technology Symposium 2010, recently sent the following email ...

If you want this year’s BCRA Cave Technology Symposium to go ahead please read this message because at the moment its future is uncertain. This message is going to everyone who spoke at or attended last year’s event plus a number of others who might be interested. Oh, and sorry if you receive this message more than once but some of you are in more than one of my mailing lists.

You’re probably aware that this year was to have been the fourth BCRA Cave Technology Symposium and all indications were that the event was going from strength to strength based on the numbers of people attending and offering to give talks over recent years. It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that with just over two months to go, offers of talks are very thin on the ground.

In November I e-mailed everyone who spoke at or attended last year’s event plus a number of other people who I thought might be interested or whom I knew to be working on cave technology related projects. A few weeks ago, I also sent individual messages to people who have spoken at recent events plus other people who have come to my attention in the meantime. These communications, plus calls for contributions on flyers at Hidden Earth and various mailing lists have, to date, resulted in one offer of a talk. Even though, as organisers, Rob Gill and myself didn’t expect that it would be necessary for us to talk, because of the poor response, we have each offered to talk also. Even so, a grand total of three talks is not sufficient for the event to go ahead. It would not be fair on those attending, especially those who would be travelling a significant distance, to attend and find that the program was only 90 minutes long. However, if we are to cancel the event, we need to give people plenty of notice. I have decided, therefore, to make a final call for contributions and if I have not received sufficient offers by Friday 13th February (i.e. two weeks from today) we will, relucantly, have to cancel the event. In all probability this would also mean that no future Cave Technology Sympoia would be organised. So, if you want to save the event and can offer an interesting presentation, please get in contact as soon as possible. FYI, the contents of my original call for contributions appears below.

Well it’s over six months since this year’s Cave Technology
Symposium and less than six months to next year’s event. So
having volunteered to act as lecture secretary for the 2010 Cave
Technology Symposium, I thought it’s really about time I made
contact with some potential speakers. So this message is going to
everyone who attended last year’s meeting, everyone who spoke,
and a few people who weren’t there last year but are supporting
the event in various ways.

The 2010 BCRA Cave Technology Symposium will be held on
Saturday 17th April in Horton-in-Ribblesdale in the Yorkshire
Dales. We are now in the process of soliciting talks,
demonstrations or posters on any area of cave technology. Areas
that come to mind include surveying, data logging,
communication, lighting, hydrology and explosives but if you’d
like to present on some other area that could be described as cave
technology we’d be most interested.

If you would like to offer a talk, demonstration or poster paper
please let me have a title and abstract/summary of your proposed
contribution. Also, if you know of someone who wasn’t there last
year but might have something interesting to contribute, please
do let me know.

I look forward to hearing from you and trust that we can make
next year’s event every bit as good as last year's.
.