The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7407 p17-18
1 July 2006

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What's on at Manchester — BPC 2006

The 2006 meeting of the British Pharmaceutical Conference takes place in Manchester from Monday 4 to Wednesday 6 September. The overall theme of the meeting will be “Personalised medicine in health care”. The conference is organised by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in association with a number of partner organisations and is sponsored by Boots, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline

BPC programme guide PDF (30K)

Conference essentials Registration Conference registration forms have been widely distributed. Further copies can be obtained from the conference organisers: Health Links, Third Floor, Windsor House, 11A High Street, Birmingham B14 7BB (tel 0121 248 3399, fax 0121 248 3390). Full conference details and updates can be found at www.bpc2006.org Fees Members of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (and certain other organisations) and presenters can take advantage of a special rate of £495+VAT for the full conference or £170+VAT for a single day if they book by 10 July. Undergraduate, full-time students pay £125+VAT full fee or £47+VAT per day. After 10 July the fees rise to £585, £210, £165 and £60, plus VAT, respectively. The fee include coffee, tea and a daily packed lunch. Online booking is available at www.bpc2006.org Accommodation Hotel accommodation with a wide range of prices has been arranged by the conference organisers but participants are responsible for booking their own accommodation. This can be done through BPC 2006’s accommodation agency Procon website tel 01423 564488 e-mail patn@procon-conferences.co.uk

The British Pharmaceutical Conference this year has “Personalised medicine in health care” as its theme. Over the three days of the conference, this theme will be explored through a series of plenary sessions, and scientific and practice symposia, with anything up to 11 conference sessions taking place simultaneously, as can be seen from the colour-coded guide (PDF 30K).

Programme

The conference begins on the Monday with a plenary symposium setting the scene in personalised medicine. Other plenary sessions spread through the conference include addresses on Monday afternoon by the health minister with responsibility for pharmacy, Andy Burnham, and the President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Hemant Patel. Tuesday’s programme begins with addresses by the conference science chairman and conference practice chairman and on Wednesday the day will start with the conference science award lecture and practice award lecture.

Each day, after the morning’s opening plenary session, the programme divides into three separate programmes on the themes of science, practice and “science into practice”.

The “science into practice” programme includes five further symposia on aspects of personalised medicine.

The programme for pharmaceutical scientists has up to five sessions running in parallel each morning and afternoon. It also includes the first Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences plenary lecture, given by Nobel laureate Sir James Black, plus a debate and three award lectures.

There will also be sessions for short talks on research in the pharmaceutical sciences plus daily poster sessions for science research abstracts.

The practice programme also offers up to five parallel symposia each morning and afternoon, plus a debate, two lectures and sessions for research posters.

Venue

The conference is again being held in the purpose-built Manchester International Convention Centre, a short walk from the city’s central shopping district.

Manchester is easily accessible. By road, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cardiff are all no more than three-and-a-half-hours away. There are good rail connections in all directions, and Manchester Airport is nearby.

Exhibition

As usual, an exhibition will run alongside the conference but this year it moves from the MICC’s own exhibition halls to G-MEX, the large hall adjacent to the MICC. It will demonstrate innovation and science, technology and pharmacy practice. Information about booking exhibition space is available from Chris Hanney on 0121 248 3399 (e-mail channey@health-links.co.uk).

Student day

For the third year running, the conference includes a special student day, which allows a limited number of pharmacy undergraduates and preregistration trainees to experience the conference for only £5. This year the special fee was offered to third-year MPharm students as well as to final-year students and preregistration trainees, with the allocation of tickets made on a first come, first served basis. (PJ, 18 February, p215). The special fee has been made possible by sponsorship from Merck Sharp & Dohme and Pfizer. The student day will be on the Wednesday, when students will be able to visit the conference science and practice sessions during the morning and attend a special student programme in the afternoon.

Social events

All participants will be able to attend a welcome reception on the Sunday evening from 7.30 to 9pm. There will be a conference dinner at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel on the Monday, with dancing to a local band (tickets £56+VAT; dance only, £5+VAT).

On the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights an informal “conference club” will be held. A Spanish restaurant night is also being arranged for the Tuesday night (tickets £25+VAT).

A black-tie dinner will take place on the Tuesday for members of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Members of the academy wishing to attend should contact Bob Seager (tel 0116 269 2299; e-mail apsgb@associationhq.org.uk).