Latest News from Conference Oxford

During lockdown, our venues have been very busy, looking into new ways of working and hosting events, ensuring their venues are covid secure and safe environments for all, investing in new technology to help facilitate hybrid and virtual events, creating virtual tours of their venues for you to view from the comfort of your home or office, opening amazing new buildings and of course, helping with the roll out of the vaccine. Conference Oxford is ready to help you find the perfect venue for whatever event or celebration you are organising.

Have a look at our video, HERE which will give you an overview of the free service we provide and the wonderful venues we look after here in Oxford.

Contact us today on enquiries@conference-oxford.ox.ac.uk, we look forward to hearing from you. – Marie O’Connor, Head of Conference Oxford

Vaccine Training

The volunteer-led health charity St John Ambulance began its 10 week programme of training for volunteer vaccinators on the weekend of 23/24 January, using St Hilda’s College as an Oxford Training hypercentre. 177 volunteers were trained on the first weekend. Outside of London, the college is the biggest venue doing this in the country!

St Hilda’s were delighted to help with the charity’s efforts to help vaccinate the nation by donating their buildings, including the first-time use of their new Anniversary Building, which sits on the banks of the river Cherwell.

The Anniversary building offers 52 high quality student bedrooms, new seminar rooms, and the Kirby Observation Room at the top of the stunning tower has spectacular views across the city.

Oxford Saïd’s Global Leadership Centre

Saïd Business School is proud to announce a £5m gift from the Pershing Square Foundation which completes the £60m funding package needed to create a new, state-of-the-art hub for executive education in Oxford. The Global Leadership Centre will be housed in a green restoration of the city’s first power station and is scheduled for completion in 2024. The building will be transformed into a modern learning centre, including seminar rooms, breakout spaces, digital classrooms, an agora, an interior courtyard and on-site accommodation.

Click here to find out more

Going Hybrid with the Oxford Martin School

The challenges faced by the meetings industry during the Pandemic were many. No more could we meet in person and so we had to look at new ways of working and hosting events. The team at the Oxford Martin School have been leading the way in offering hybrid and virtual events since 2013! With clever use of their in-house technology, their conference and events team have been able to offer their series of lectures and talks to a worldwide audience, as well as the one in the room. Recently they also shared their knowledge and expertise with our Conference Oxford member venues through two very popular webinars entitled The Ins and Outs of Hybrid Events, allowing us all to experience at first hand the possibilities that hybrid events can offer.

Clare Bowyer, Events and Venue Manager at the Oxford Martin School explains more here

Oxford Playhouse Plays On

Oxford Playhouse is a very special venue, not only does it play host to and produce many amazing performances – plays and shows throughout the year, but it also offers it’s wonderful theatre and rooms for conferences and events during normal times. Over the last year it was also used as vital additional teaching space for the Saïd Business School. Like all of our venues, the Playhouse has had to adapt their procedures and find new ways of working to meet the ever-changing stringent requirements to ensure a Covid secure venue. Hand sanitizers on every available surface, face recognition temperature detectors upon entrance, QR track and trace code and fogging of the auditorium and main building. With all of these measures in place, the Playhouse was also able to host a series of successful comedy events over the winter weekends.

Chris Robins, Front of House Manager at the Oxford Playhouse discusses more here

Take a Virtual Tour of our Venues

We are excited to announce that the Examination Schools have launched a new virtual 360 event spaces tour! Glide up the Victorian marble staircases, gaze at the elaborately sculpted ceilings and enjoy the many unique features this historic venue offers.

While you’ve not been able to visit our unique and wonderful University and college venues over the past year, many have created libraries of online images, video and virtual tours for you to explore from the comfort of your own home. Click here to see them all!

B&B Getaway

St Hilda’s College are offering an excellent Dinner, Bed and Breakfast Package for overnight stays from 16 July onwards – with a 10% discount given to those booking before 31 May 2021. Click to see prices.

Summer Staycation?

Set in leafy North Oxford, St Anne’s College offers guests the perfect base to explore our unique, beautiful and diverse city. Stay in August this year for:
– £60 B&B for a single ensuite room
– £100 B&B for a twin ensuite room
Book Here

St Anne’s College also have a new conference package offering working breakfasts, hot and cold grazing tables, sandwich platters, fine dining or even go behind the scenes and (for a small number) the option to have a ‘chef’s tasting’ menu cooked and served in front of you in the kitchen.

New for 2021

Wolfson College have been busy during lockdown, creating a new digital Conference and Events brochure for 2021. The college sits on the banks of the river Cherwell, and offers a tranquil location with excellent, modern meeting facilities.
Read the Conference and Events Brochure here

What’s Going On

OP Young Ambassadors
Oxford Playhouse are assembling a group of dedicated, passionate and creative young people to help shape the future of OP.
Find Out More

Space Adventure Puppetry Workshop
Create your own puppet at home using top tips from puppeteer Robyn Olivia.
Find Out More

Oxford University Museum of Natural History
You can now search 491,786 records from the Museum of Natural History’s specimen, object and archive collections.
Discover them here

Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean have launched a brand new Image Library, where you can browse over 10,000 objects images for licensing, from Egyptian mummies to contemporary art.
Explore the Library here

And finally – Events you don’t want to miss:

Two Writers: In Conversation with Jasmine Lee-Jones & Ella Hickson, two of British theatre’s most exciting and outspoken voices.
Online, live-streaming 4 March 2021, 7.30pm, Tickets £5
This event is part of an ongoing series organized by the Oxford Playhouse in collaboration with TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities) and the Cameron Mackintosh Fund for Contemporary Drama.

Bodleian Wedding Showcase
11 March, 7-9pm, Free, booking required
Meet the Bodleian Weddings Team and a selection of trusted suppliers and partners to discover the many varied possibilities when getting married at the Bodleian and to pick up plenty of useful planning tips.

The Picture of Dorian Gray
Online, live-streaming from16-31 March 2021, Tickets £12
In a profile pic-obsessed, filter-fixated world where online and reality blur, influencer Dorian Gray makes a deal. For his social star never to fade. For the perfect self he broadcasts to the world to always remain. But as his mental health starts to decline, as corruption and murderous depravity start to creep into his world, the true and horrific cost of his deal will soon need to be met.

Hey Diddle Diddle
Until Mon 22 March, 11am, Online musical fun via Zoom, Tickets: Free, booking essential
A sing-along and play session for pre-school children and their adults, Hey Diddle Diddle returns for another term of musical fun every Monday morning. Ages: 5 and under. Duration: 30mins per sessions