British Interactive Group - Newsletter Winter 1999

From the Chair

So, here it is - my final from the Chair. Once again I'm penning this whilst sitting at the airport. This time on return from the ECSITE conference in Prague and with little else to do -mostly as I've no money. Not because I've spent an extravagant amount on booze-ups or Christmas gifts for the team back in Oxford but because my wallet was nicked last night. Some of you may remember that the same fate smacked me in the teeth at a previous ECSITE conference in Brussels. That was in a most mundane way en route to the rail station - at least this time the burglar struck whilst I was having fun dancing with a man with a mesmerising pelvis at 3 a.m. in a Prague night club so I was understandably a little distracted. What is it they say about no pleasure without pain!

Anyway, enough of this frivolity - as this is my final from the Chair I ought really to wax a little more serious and review the ups and downs of the last two BIG years.

I'm pleased, if not to say relieved, that at the end of my period of office BIG has both more members and more money than when I started.
The highlights for me have to be the last two BIG events at Hertsmonceux where the sun has shone and the conferencing and networking has been excellent. It has become an important fixture in the interactive calendar and continues to attract a growing audience with delegates from a wide range of interests and disciplines and an increasing number of very welcome overseas visitors. I'm sure I shall enjoy it even more next year when I'm not organising it, too!

It's been good to see the Special Interest Groups beginning to flourish. Last year, the membership very clearly endorsed the original constitutional set-up that BIG is an organisation for individuals. It's for their professional development, for networking and for exchange of good practice and the SIG's are a mechanism for doing just that.

However, it is a still time of great change and BIG is living in a very different world from when it was first set up. I had thought that I could get away without mentioning the dreaded M word but I'm afraid that BIG cannot ignore it. With the growing number of Lottery funded science centres (and other visitor centres), the influence of the Millennium Commission and other major funding bodies such as The Wellcome Trust must not be underestimated. It is highly likely that within the next year there will be some sort of formal UK science centre network. We continue to emphasise that BIG is not about institutions nor solely about science but BIG ignores such developments at its peril. I'm sure the new Chair will continue to ensure that BIG plays an active and leading role in all the discussions - BIG is now an established organisation with a degree of both street credibility and clout and if we don't use it, we may end up losing it.

Thanks to everyone for their support over the years and all the very best to the new Chair. It'll be nice not to be known universally as BIG Gillian for a while!

Gillian will be contactable via chair@big.uk.com until 20th February, at which point freedom beckons. We look forward to seeing her at BIG events, looking completely calm and relaxed - Ed.

Newsletter Winter 1999 Contents



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