We are delighted that this years' conference will be held at the Assembly Buildings Conference Centre in the heart of Belfast and that the Annual Dinner will be held at the iconic Titanic Belfast Building.

A Titanic Conference!

The organising committee for this year’s conference look forward to extending the warmest of Ulster welcomes to Belfast from 19-21^st November.

We have no less that three pre-conference tours to choose from on the afternoon of 19^th November.  These will include a visit to the dairy farm of one of our inaugural “Next Gen” scholars Ewan McCracken whose father Brian will be well known to many in the “spring calving” fraternity.  The second tour will visit Blakiston Houston Estates were we will see an autumn calving medium input dairy herd along with some really pioneering work in the field of Anaerobic Digestion and nutrient management.  Finally for those with a more entrepreneurial (or alcoholic) bent we will visit the Bullhouse Brew Co in South Belfast to see how this brewery by William Mayne (the son of well known dairy and grassland scientist Sinclair Mayne) has exploded from a part-time enterprise in an outhouse to a really thriving and rapidly growing business.  After visiting the brewery this trip will then travel to “Bullhouse East” their taproom in East Belfast were there will be a guided beer tasting of four half pints.

The Welcome Buffet will take place in the famous Europa Hotel.  The conference proper will take place in the historic Assembly Rooms which are just across the road from the Europa.  There will be 28 returning scholar presentations this year which will all take place in a single room.  There will also be presentation on the final day from our three inaugural “Next Gen” Scholars.  Note the presentations on the final day will conclude at the later time of 4pm.

The Gala Dinner will take place in the iconic Titanic Belfast building.  The drinks reception will be held in the atrium and will include traditional Irish dancing before we are drummed into the Titanic Suite (complete with a replica staircase) for our dinner by two traditional Lambeg drummers.

For those of you who would like to make a longer trip of this you may wish to consider attending the Nuffield Ireland conference which will be held on the preceding Friday (15^th November) in the Mount Wolseley Hotel, Tullow, County Carlow.

We look forward to seeing you in Belfast later this year.