Face-to-face meetings begin again
For the first time since March 2020, College members will again be able to gather at our main office, at 21 Prescot Street in central London, for meetings, events, and ceremonies.
With the pandemic taking hold of the UK two years ago, the College took the decision to become a virtual organisation on 17 March 2020 and all events, ceremonies and meetings were migrated to online platforms.
But now, after 23 months, with COVID restrictions being lifted, we are relaunching in-person training, conferences, and ceremonies, starting on Monday (28 February).
We will be kicking off with a face-to-face Education and Training Committee (ETC) meeting on Monday 28 February. The Adolescent and Liaison Faculties will then meet in person on 2 and 8 March respectively.
These will be the first times that colleagues have met at Prescot Street for two years.
Following the first few meetings, we will also be resuming in-person training, conferences, and ceremonies.
Starting with CBT in Practice: Introduction to CBT, led by Dr Paul Blenkiron on 16 March, we then pick up the pace with our first-ever hybrid New Members Ceremony on 17 March, and our first in-person Patient and Carers Conference on 18 March.
During April, there will be more face-to-face conferences and training, with the College beginning to see a return to our pre-pandemic levels of bookings in our physical event spaces at Prescot Street.
In-person events will also be returning across the Divisions and Devolved Nations, with the London Division holding their StartWell event on 30 March, and other conferences taking place in Exeter, Manchester, York, and Dundee during the spring.
Throughout the year, we expect to hold 300 events and webinars, with just under 50% taking place in-person, and a similar percentage continuing to take place online.
We will also be trialling hybrid events, where attendees will be able to join in person at Prescot Street, or via a video stream.
The biggest event to return to being face-to-face this year will be our International Congress, which is being held in Edinburgh.
Registration for the International Congress is now open, and included in the Congress fee is access to the recordings of each session.
Many members valued the chance to re-watch their favourite keynote sessions from our 2021 virtual congress – and we’ve brought that functionality back for this year. More details will be announced soon.
Back to our February 2022 eNewsletter.