Stand Up and Be Included as a Conference 2020 Sponsor

Our annual conference once again provides a fantastic opportunity for commercial organisations to support our work, as well as offering an effective route to attract new clients.

The Mercian Collaboration was established in 2014 as a regional academic library network within the UK Midlands. As of 2020, it now comprises twenty three organisational members including every major Midlands university. The Collaboration plays a key strategic role in enabling and enhancing workforce development, user experience, teaching and learning as well as research support throughout the region’s university libraries. These extensive institutional member benefits are realised through an extensive portfolio of events, special interest groups and online environments.

Conference 2020

Once again, the Collaboration flagship event is our annual members conference. This year it will be hosted at the dynamic heart of the University of Birmingham (Tue 8th September 2020). Set against the evolving higher educational and societal environs, our 2020 conference theme could not be more timely: Dissolving Barriers: Inclusivity and Diversity within Academic Library Practice.

As our fourth annual conference, expectations are high that once again the event will draw a rich kaleidoscope of around one-hundred delegates from across all seniority levels and areas within member libraries. From past experience, attendees will likely include everyone from service directors and senior managers, through budget holders and specialist practitioners to core frontline team members. The Mercian Collaboration conference really has become the Midlands regional event for academic library staff to meet, network and learn from each other’s experiences.

Commercial Opportunities

Once again, commercial organisations, suppliers and publishers are warmly being offered the opportunity to support the conference, with our Sponsorship Policy providing details of our two sponsorship packages. Either be a level one sponsor and gain exhibiting space at the event’s heart, or be a level two sponsor and provide a programme insert. Either way, you will be able to share exciting news about your services, products and opportunities with around one-hundred library delegates.

[Edit May 2020: Due to the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown, the conference has pivoted to an online event - please note the updated sponsorship policy]

With such a wide range of delegates present, previous conference sponsors have been delighted in generating new business leads and reinforcing commercial relationships. Becoming a Conference sponsor also offers a cost-effective way gain insights into emerging academic library sector business needs.

Find Out More

To explore becoming included as part of this exciting, member exclusive, event contact our Conference Finance & Sponsorship Coordinator (Cheryl Coveney, mercianconference@gmail.com), or visit our dedicated and developing Conference microsite for more details.

For general questions relating to the Collaboration, please contact Gareth J Johnson, (Executive Manager, Mercian Collaboration).