Loughborough’s bid to host
#SPANC16
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I am delighted to give the bid from Loughborough Students’ Union my full support. Our students, through LSU Media, do outstanding work and journalism is one example of their exceptional contribution. In addition, the Students’ Union has experience of organising large conferences and I am confident that if selected, Loughborough will host an event that will be enjoyed by everyone. Prof. Robert Allison, Loughborough University Vice Chancellor
/LSUMedia
@LSUMedia
media.lsu.co.uk
01509 635048
CONTENTS
Welcome - 04 LSU Media - 05 Meet the Team - 06 Our Central Location - 08 Conference Facilities - 10 Accommodation - 11 Catering - 12 Entertainment - 14 Budget - 16 Organisation - 18 Ooo... Interesting - 20 Dates & Summary - 21 Endorsements - 22
WELCOME
Loughborough Students’ Union is host to one official publication through LSU Media. As a very well established magazine, Label has a twenty- strong committee, all of whom are well engaged with the production of our magazines and online content, be this through writing, designing or marketing, all of which we have a group of student volunteers for.
Our publication is released seven times throughout the academic year, although this year we also included a special edition to be added to freshers’ packs, reaching over 4000 students in their first week. We aim to produce content that is both informative and interesting for the students of Loughborough and will soon be joining up with the students on our Loughborough University in London Campus. This will enable the new students there to use our platform to produce content which will be really beneficial to them as well as the students of Loughborough.
We will be increasing the visibility of events, news and sports on both campuses, ever seeking to expand LSU Media and hence Label. Hosting the conference at Loughborough Students’ Union would be an incredible opportunity and a great experience for all involved. Hosting in one of the best students’ unions in the country would be a treat for everyone and is of course something that we would be more than proud to share with our guests. LSU are always keen to help with events for external organisations and seek to help us in whatever way possible and will be more than happy in helping us to host such an exciting event as SPANC next Easter. Many members of staff and students have already endeavoured to assist with our bid in terms of the venue, catering and any other general enquiries.
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Last year alone saw an exciting General Election Debate, welcoming local candidates for Loughborough, of which was covered by LSU Media across all of our platforms.
As a section of the students’ union, we work well together in coordinating our content which would be extremely beneficial in holding live streams of parts of the conference, creating podcasts, promotional videos, photographs throughout the event, and of course, comment pieces through Label. In terms of previous experiences in hosting large events, the NaSTA awards were held at LSU back in 2014. This shows just how proficient and ambitious students of Loughborough can and will be during their time at university, and Label’s SPANC Team are no exception to that.
LSU MEDIA
LSU Media has played host to large events before.
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MEET THE TEAM
Katie Wilson
Leanna Kightley
I am Label Editor this year having been heavily involved in Label and LSU Media in my first and second year.
LSU Media is a huge part of my student experience, having taken on the roles of Label Assistant Editor and Features Content Coordinator this year.
Chair
I decided that bidding for this year's SPANC would be a fantastic idea, an opportunity we could not miss. As we seek to facilitate opportunities for volunteers, it seems only right for us to continue that trend, and seek further opportunities for the whole of Label and LSU, in our bid to host SPANC 2016. Hosting a national event would be a fantastic achievement that we would be incredibly prepared to organise and facilitate in order to play a massive part in an event to bring student journalists from everywhere, to our one central location.
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Entertainment Coordinator
SPANC sounds like a great opportunity to not only show Loughborough student involvement and volunteering at its finest, but also to display our fantastic magazine, Label, on a larger scale. For student journalists from across the country to visit us and see how we do things here makes SPANC 2016 an unmissable opportunity and we have many exciting plans in place to make the conference a great weekend for everyone.
Paul Johnson Venue Coordinator
I have been involved across all sections of LSU Media and am currently the station manager for Loughborough Campus Radio. Attending multiple student conferences including the SRA’s and the NaSTAs highlighted to me the value of student conferences in educating and inspiring future generations of students. Hosting SPANC 2016 would represent an inspirational opportunity for LSU and personally an organisational challenge which I would love to take on.
Alice Priestley
Jamie Hutton
Communications Coordinator
Accommodation and Costings Coordinator
Having been involved with LSU Media and Label every year so far, I can say with confidence that SPANC will be a hugely beneficial and well-deserved opportunity for not just Label, but all students involved with LSU Media.
After joining Label this year under the role of News Editor I have found myself to be part of an exciting and committed publication team.
SPANC will undoubtedly provide an exciting occasion for like-minded student journalists nationwide to experience what we have to offer here at Loughborough University. SPANC will particularly allow our team to show our progress and hard work, hopefully inspiring other student publications across the country with our success so far.
I see SPANC as a fantastic way to meet other students enthusiastic about journalism and media as well as displaying our own fantastic team of volunteers. After seeing the level of journalism at Loughborough I think that the chance to host SPANC would be a great opportunity and challenge that everyone involved will be able to rise to.
Loughborough promises to host a promising and exciting weekend for everyone involved.
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OUR CENTRAL LOCATION 8
Loughborough University is situated in East Midlands and is an ideal location for national events. Easy links to larger places such as Leicester and Nottingham via a direct train connection, and Birmingham with just one change, Loughborough is easy to commute to, wherever you’re travelling from. With regular bus services around Loughborough, access to the University Campus is only a fifteen minute journey. Alternatively, if you’d rather take a look around the town and explore Loughborough’s shops and markets, the train station is within walking distance of the university and would not take you much longer than half an hour. While trains are the easiest method of transport, if you drive, arrangements can be made for parking on campus. In the heart of the Midlands, Loughborough could not be in a better location. The centrality of the venue makes Loughborough the perfect choice for travel to and from any area of the UK, with travel times unlikely to exceed two or three hours in most cases.
GLASGOW EDINBURGH
NEWCASTLE
YORK LEEDS MANCHESTER DERBY
NOTTINGHAM
LOUGHBOROUGH LEICESTER
BIRMINGHAM
M1
A1 LONDON
SOUTHAMPTON EXETER
BRIGHTON
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CONFERENCE FACILITIES 10
Loughborough Students’ Union is the winner of the What Uni? Student Choice Awards 2015. We have a capacity for up to four thousand people on a night out, with three main clubbing areas, multiple meeting and conference rooms, and a media department with £1.2 million worth of facilities.
LSU is experienced in hosting large scale events. With various awards ceremonies throughout the year and in the summer term especially, our largest space, Room One, can cater for over two hundred people. The venue can be tailored to suit any occasion.
The onsite technical department can rig lights, cameras and other conference enhancing equipment to the ceiling, as well as providing the opportunity for white screen photography. These options will help us to cater to a diverse range of delegates and their interests, providing spaces for non- alcoholic social activities as well as the traditional club venue of a students’ union.
Loughborough University is renowned for its fantastic accommodation facilities which cater not just to students but to conferences and events as well. Over the dates of the 8th - 10th April there is accommodation available in Royce Halls on campus, approximately 5 minutes walk from the students’ union.
In addition, Loughborough Town has a Travelodge and Premier Inn. These are less than a 20 minute walk from the Union. There are also buses from town.
We have further options for on-campus accommodation at Burleigh Court, which would be very much suited to our guest speakers over the weekend, if accommodation was required.
The rates are as follows:
Prices for which are as follows:
The costs are as follows:
£32.00 per student, per night Shared bathroom facilities in Single student accommodation bed and breakfast Additional Catering in Royce Hall is as follows: £15.00 per person for a two course lunch £21.50 per person for a three course dinner
£27 for double room, saver rate non-refundable at Travelodge £39 for single room, saver rate non-refundable at Premier Inn £8.75 for Breakfast
£46.00 per person, per night without breakfast £56.00 per person, per night with breakfast
ACCOMMODATION
£36.00 per student, per night En Suite Single student accommodation bed and breakfast
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CATERING 12
A Lunch Buffet Saturday and Sunday at £4.50pp this would include:
Our awards evening Meal is priced at £18.50pp which includes:
A selection of sandwiches & wraps with meat, vegetarian & fish fillings
A selection of cold nibble type starters on platters
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Main course of Chicken with a panache of veg, roast potatoes & gravy
Freshly baked sausage rolls **
Freshly baked cheese & onion rolls (v) **
A selection of crisps & tortillas
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Vegetarian main course option – e.g. Somerset Brie & Beetroot Tart **
Selection of Mini Desserts on platters
Catering options at LSU suit all budgets and needs, from buffet lunches to three- course awards dinners. The experienced catering team are more than proficient in providing us with many options and providing food to suit all dietary requirements at times during the weekend to suit us.
On the Friday evening, we recommend heading into town to explore Loughborough a little for yourself before heading back to LSU for a chilled evening of getting to know each other and dancing the night away. With Italian, Indian and Chinese restaurants, pizza restaurants, chip shops, takeaways and pubs, there really is somewhere for everyone. Alternatively, we can look into getting pizzas from Domino’s, whom we have close links with, at which we could possibly pay just £5 per pizza. This is not included in the ticket price.
We also have the option to provide some additional refreshments for the Saturday and Sunday during the conference: - 2 kg Biscuit selection to accompany Tea & Coffee priced at £9.75 per box - 5lts Orange & Apple Blackcurrant cordial £4.85 per bottle (a bottle makes approx. 45-50lts) (A Continental Breakfast in the union is an option at £3.75pp, although for delegates staying in Royce, breakfast is provided in the price.) Without breakfast, the price for Saturday per person is £23.00 and for the Sunday is £4.50 per person.
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Loughborough Students’ Union consistently wins awards for being the best Students’ Union in the UK, including the WhatUni? Student Choice Award for Best Students’ Union 2015, in which we also won University of the Year. This means that we can provide guests to SPANC 2016 with a great experience they will never forget! What better place to hold a conference and awards night? The Union is equipped with lighting and set up to hold this fantastic event against our specially made stage set, and this is organised by a friendly team who are familiar with our delegates and keen to make the weekend go as smoothly as possible. We can also provide a bar stocked with wine, beer, spirits and soft drinks, taking you through from day to night and all charged at a reasonable price that won’t break the bank!
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Sister Media section, LCR (Loughborough Campus Radio), can DJ the event and is again an example of how flexible LSU Media are. Other examples of this include Lens, who will be on hand to photograph the event and guests in their finery, and LSUTV who will be filming highlights of the event. This is the perfect opportunity for Media to work together and all the beautifully created content from the event will be available on the Media website thereafter, allowing guests the chance to reflect and show friends and family what a fabulous time they’ve had at Loughborough University.
The varied room sizes also make for great options when considering our evening entertainment, as we have the scope to provide areas for a relaxed social or fun club night, where you can take full advantage of our bar facilities. Alternatively, you may prefer a cosy movie night, or quiz night where universities can battle each other to see who has gained the best general knowledge through our journalistic endeavours. To conclude, there’s lots for you to do at LSU.
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ENTERTAINMENT
Our proposal for hosting SPANC 2016 is as follows. After holding various meetings and discussions with LSU’s Catering and Venue teams, we have managed to secure the prices listed below, which we believe are very reasonable for the time and staffing required for a successful weekend of conference.
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All costs include VAT and were confirmed via email in the month of November 2015.
Ticket price £47
Ticket prices listed below are without accommodation, projected prices for this can be found in the accommodation section of our brochure. Ticket prices include: Venue, Tech, Catering and Entertainment over the weekend. Please see below for specifics: Outgoings entail: Venue: which includes bar staff for the Friday and Saturday evenings, hosted in Fusion and Room One respectively; security during bar opening hours; a duty manager across the whole weekend and room hire all weekend too.
Catering: at the union we will provide lunch on both Saturday and Sunday and a three course evening meal on Sunday. Please see our Catering section of the brochure for more details on breakfast options as well as details of what we will supply. Decor: this cost covers our arrangements for decorating Room One for our awards evening. Entertainment: this cost will cover DJs for our events. All costs are standard, apart from catering, which works on a cost per person basis, individual costings can be viewed on our Catering page.
Cost Breakdown: Venue - £1500 Tech - £650 Catering - £4125 Decor - £300 Entertainment - £300 Total - £6875
BUDGET
Tech: this includes staff costs for our technical assistants. Tech will provide staging hire, staff technical time and any other technical equipment.
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ORGANISATION 18
Our voluntary team for organising our bid for the conference are more than prepared to take on the full organisation, alongside staff and other students at Loughborough Students’ Union in the lead up to the conference in April. When selecting who would be part of our Label Conference Committee, the Label Committee and Media Senate were addressed. From this we decided on the following roles: Chair, Entertainment, Venue, Communications and Commerce and Accommodation Coordinators. This gave us our team of five dedicated people for our venture, each in charge of a specific section of the bid, and in turn the organisation process in the lead up to the actual conference, with Label Editor, Katie Wilson overseeing, as Chair. We have not only got Label’s Editor, Assistant Editor, News Editor and Features Editor on board, but also Loughborough Campus Radio’s Station Manager, Paul Johnston. Our connections with other sections of Media will be a massive benefit for our coverage of the conference throughout the weekend, as well as in the lead up to it, especially in terms of promotional purposes.
LSU are happy to help us take on the conference in terms of organising the venue and catering. Our full time members of media staff, Bryn Wilkes and Chris Moore are both fully on board and more than happy to help. This may involve things such as liaising more directly with other members of union staff or those linked with accommodation. Their support is fully appreciated and welcomed and will be of great assistance in helping to represent the whole of LSU Media, whilst the majority of the team represent what we do journalistically. For us, our media involvement is a lot more than just our magazine. In an age where we rely on social media and online presence, Loughborough Students’ Media can offer the full package. From podcasts and on screen interviews right through to critical journalistic pieces and photography of events, LSU can not only offer a strong venue and a variety of catering options in a central location, but we can also help to push the publicity of the whole conference and SPA thereafter. LSU hosts hundreds of excellent volunteers interested in all sorts of areas of student life, with over one hundred media volunteers who are keen and often well engaged. We love a good meeting, so Skype calls and trips to visit the SPA Executive will not prove an issue, especially as we have a group of five, of whom are always kept well in the loop with all organisational details and are more than invested in this venture.
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Loughborough wants a good #SPANC in 2016
OOO... INTERESTING
LSU Media is not just about Label, it consists of four sections: Label, LCR, Lens, LSUTV.
LCR is our student radio station, hosting various shows both inside and outside of the studio.
Lens is our photography section, created two years ago and consistently works closely with Label and the other sections to provide original, quality images.
LSUTV is our TV section; they were also part of hosting the NaSTA Awards in 2014.
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Our year began with a Committee Training weekend, which was vital in getting to know everyone across the four sections and work on team building and plans for the year ahead. Media Senate also had an away weekend at the end of last year, enabling section and mediawide plans to be created and discussed, whilst also getting to know each other a bit better. Senate consists of the section heads as well as our representatives for Marketing, Hall Media, Online, our commercial branch, Assistant Head, VP Media and Media Technical Production and Support. Committees and Senate meet regularly to keep on top of all our plans and work together successfully.
Our Media section isn’t all about committees though. With many keen volunteers in all sections, the committees work to facilitate opportunities for student volunteers who wish to be trained to use cameras, indesign and much more. With plenty of opportunities to create content ranging from articles and radio shows to tv shows and taking photos, LSU Media works to allow people of all abilities to gain experience in media.
With various notable alumni including Rob Hastings from The Independent who has also kindly endorsed us, there are also many ex- LSU Media persons working in the media industry for the BBC. Our media alumni weekend brings all of these people together to share their experiences in getting into the industry and how their LSU Media experiences also benefitted them in doing so.
In conclusion, Label and LSU Media are more than happy and in fact rather excited to be part of such a fantastic event. There is not only our team of five SPANC volunteers, but the rest of the Label Committee and LSU Media would be on board and have been in talks with us throughout our bidding process. Loughborough would love the opportunity to showcase our talents and wonderful campus to many student journalists from across the country and truly believe that we have the best facilities and team to be able to pull off a fantastic Student Publication Association National Conference in 2016. With the SPANC voluntary team all in their final year, this would really enable us to leave our stamp on LSU and the SPA, and we could leave knowing that we were part of making a great event happen in our final stint at university.
With many keen and dedicated volunteers, obtaining photographers and videographers for the event would not prove problematic. There are many volunteers who would also be willing to help out with producing promotional videos before the event in order to attract delegates and promote the event as a whole. Through this, the SPA would gain wider publicity, as would LSU. We believe that this is a paramount to the event and something which we can offer at a quality like no other. With full backing from our members of staff in LSU Media, the lead up to the event will be smooth as will the actual event itself. To contact the LSU Media office, please call: 01509 635048 or contact the SPANC team Chair and Label Editor, Katie Wilson more directly on 07582136095 or email LabelEditor@lsu.co.uk.
DATES & SUMMARY
Having approached our union’s venue and catering team, they are happy to provide us with all that we need over the weekend of 8-10th April, with the rooms needed pencilled in already and catering available to work.
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ENDORSEMENTS
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Jess Excell, Union President
Loughborough is the ideal location for the Student Publication Association National Conference and will undoubtedly be an event to remember. At Loughborough Students’ Union, our facilities are second to none and we are comfortable and experienced hosting large scale events. Our 4000 capacity multi room and versatile night club, media suite, cafe, meeting rooms and shops would all be available for this event in our flexible and impressive building. For example, we recently hosted the NASTA annual conference and awards, proving how well we can host and develop events of this nature to an incredibly high standard, supported by our in house catering, providing a variety of multicultural cuisine, as well as our outstanding technical teams running all AV aspects of the event. We have an amazing media department at LSU with highly engaged and enthusiastic student volunteers, supported by a full time Executive officer and a team of full time staff. With such a dedicated media team, fully supportive Executive and highly experienced permanent staff team supporting this bid, we feel LSU would be the perfect place to host the conference, and would be honoured to do so.
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Rob Hastings, now Deputy News Editor at The Independent and i newspapers, proud to have been deputy editor of Loughborough’s Label magazine in 2006/7
Loughborough Student Union’s media centre would be the perfect place to host the SPA student journalism conference. I say this not only out of loyalty – though my three years spent working on the Loughborough student magazine, Label, were key to me gaining the hands-on experience necessary to succeed in the national media. I also say this because, having returned to the union every year since 2007, I know how hard the volunteers on the mag, the radio and the TV stations continue to work in keeping the facilities as fresh and up to date as possible. They are always welcoming and inclusive to everyone who comes through the door, and ultimately make a huge difference to people’s university lives and their careers. Importantly, the staff and current students also have great experience of holding alumni weekends involving journalism seminars and workshops – meaning they are ideally suited to host an event like SPA. Loughborough’s Student Union building – with its many different spaces both for formal presentations and laid-back group discussions - are ideal for hosting big groups of people. Even the geographical location of the university’s impressive campus helps, being in the heart of the midlands and therefore easy to reach from all parts of the country. I wholeheartedly endorse Loughborough’s bid. They will not let you down. 23
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Emma Leech, Loughborough University Director of Marketing and Management
Why Loughborough? The wealth of talent, creativity, energy and team work at Loughborough is, I believe, unique in the HE sector. We have great facilities, accommodation and entertainment on tap (and our awards in these areas speak for themselves) but we also see the world differently. At Loughborough, both the Students’ Union and the University work in partnership to create the best possible student experience. That’s a collaboration that springs from the initiative, drive and passion of our student body and the commitment of the University to listening to our community and to helping make things happen. In my first few months at Loughborough, I was fortunate to work with the SU on the ground-breaking #IAMIN clearing campaign which went on to win multiple national and European awards, including The Guardian University Awards Best Marketing and Comms Campaign 2015. The LSU team are key partners in how we plan and deliver our marketing and communications activities and we work closely with their amazingly talented media team on everything from events promotion and live broadcasting to joined-up social media campaigns, photography and video. From light projections and event promotions to incisive journalism, “cheeky” PR students and quirky fundraising promos, the team at Loughborough constantly push the boundaries, innovate and keep our thinking current. We draw on their imagery, imagination and creativity to help us shape our campaigns and recruitment activities, meet student needs and capture the attention of the next generation of students. The quality of reporting in Label is exceptional and the environment that the media team have created is an inspirational hot-house that generates and delivers campaigns, content and events that hit the mark time and time again in terms of impact, quality and excitement.
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I hope you will come to Loughborough and see for yourself. You’ll be welcomed by the whole community, treated like old friends and have a phenomenal conference experience.
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As the Member of Parliament for Loughborough, I have had the opportunity to visit LSU and see its excellent conference facilities first-hand. These would provide the perfect environment to host a large number of student journalists and editors, particularly as the union itself has won multiple awards, including WhatUni’s University of the Year for Best Students’ Union, for providing a supportive service to students. LSU Media consistently provides interesting content for the wider student body at Loughborough University. They also have a proud history of working with student volunteers to develop their media skills and ensure that they have the opportunity to connect with the media industry as much as possible. The excellent work that they do sets a fantastic example to other student media bodies across the country and I have no doubt that they would be able to host an exciting and insightful conference.
So many people love us we needed more pages...
I was delighted to hear that Loughborough Students’ Union (LSU) Media are submitting a bid to host the Student Publication Association’s National Conference.
ENDORSEMENTS
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The Rt. Hon Nicky Morgan, MP for Loughborough, Secretary of State for Education
Finally, Loughborough itself is in the heart of the country and is easily accessible due to its transportation links. Therefore, LSU would be an ideal location for the Student Publication Association’s National Conference.
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Come to a brand SPANCing new location
Special thanks go to Chris Moore and Greg Carter for their work on the brochure, and thanks to Lens and Natasha Walkerdine for supplying the photographs and graphics.