BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting 2017: bookings have opened

Exhibition Meeting 2015, Natural History Museum
Image: Waheed Arshad

Bookings opened on Tuesday for this year's BSBI Exhibition Meeting which will be held at the Natural History Museum, London on Saturday 25th November and, for those of us on the Organising Committee (that's me, Kylie and Jodey), our phones haven't stopped pinging! Lots of you are booking your tickets, requesting spaces on the behind-the-scenes tours of the Herbarium, enquiring about how to reserve exhibitor space, speakers are telling us what will be in their Powerpoints... it's all go here at BSBI Towers!

If you haven't been to a BSBI Exhibition Meeting before, please head over to this page where you can see images from previous events, download Powerpoints and view some of the exhibits we've featured in recent years. Or take a look at some of our Exhibition Meeting blogposts here and here.

Kylie (on left) looks at Roger Horton's exhibit, 
Exhibition Meeting 2015.
Image: Waheed Arshad 

The event is very much open to everyone who is interested in the wild flowers of Britain and Ireland, whether you are a beginner or an expert, and you don't have to be a BSBI member to attend. 

But if you are thinking about joining, this is a great opportunity to check out what's on offer. And it's completely free to attend and to exhibit thanks to our lovely friends at the Natural History Museum who are providing the venue to us completely free of charge.

Among our speakers this year are: 
Andrew Branson, former editor of British Wildlife and soon to take over the editorship of BSBI's membership newsletter; 
Alex Mills from the Natural History Museum's 'Identification Trainers for the Future' programme; 
Mark Duffell from BSBI's Training and Education Committee will be talking about the many ways in which BSBI supports botanical training at all skill levels. 

Field meeting in Kerry this year
Image: Jessica Hamilton

BSBI staff and officers who will be speaking include Field Meetings Secretary Jon Shanklin who will be talking about the BSBI Summer Meeting in Flintshire, Irish Officer Maria Long who will update us on how she is helping to build and support BSBI's botanical network in Ireland; and our Head of Science Kevin Walker will be talking about BSBI's Threatened Plants Project (TPP) and the new publication from the BSBI Science Team, Threatened Plants in Britain and Ireland, which analyses the results of the TPP. 

George Garnett (on left) attends his first plant
science lecture at Univ Reading
Image: Jonathan Mitchley

Finally we have two speakers at opposite ends of the age and experience spectrum: Margaret Bradshaw, who has been a BSBI member since 1951, will be talking to us about the flora of Upper Teesdale and a new project to help conserve it; and Guernsey botanist George Garnett, in the first year of an undergraduate degree at University of Reading, will talk about 'Growing the Next Generation of Botanists'.

We'll keep you posted in coming weeks about the exhibits you can look forward to but for now, head over to the Exhibition Meeting webpage and book your space so that Kylie, Jodey and I can hear that satisfying pinging sound on our phones - and look forward to catching up with you in November!