Bentham Brooks Institute Society: Events and Conference Officer

Dear BBI members,

I am delighted to nominate myself for the role of Events and Conferences Officer. With your help, I intend to transform the face of student-led research at UCL by bringing new ideas to the table and hosting events to ensure you get the most out of BBI.

As a current Research Team Lead, I am committed to the BBI's central premise of bringing UCL students closer to research while also being well-positioned to understand the requirements and desires of BBI members. My experience as a writer and editor for the Diplomacy and Asiatic Affairs societies will also be valuable in organising collaborative events with other UCL international relations societies.

More importantly, I am excited to implement the following ideas:

1. Expanding Careers Sessions

I propose greater mobilisation of BBI’s research-focused nature to organise more research-related career events with professionals in the field (such as think tank researchers) along with organised visits to various think tanks across London to provide greater exposure to the workings of a think tank.

2. Widen Cross-University Events

BBI goes beyond just research; it also embodies the opportunity to network, share our research with others, and gain exposure to new perspectives. Therefore, I will pursue the organisation of more events with other London universities, particularly a collaborative conference with other student-led think tanks, to showcase and present your BBI research projects conducted throughout the year.

By encouraging strong relationships and building community, events are incredibly important to the success of societies. I feel that this is particularly true to BBI, as the nature of the society means we primarily spend time with the people in our research teams and can only connect with people outside of our teams through social events. This makes events crucial to creating a cohesive and welcoming society.

As School President a key aspect of my role was organising social events to create a stronger sense of community amongst my cohort following school closures and lockdowns, and I successfully organised highly attended social events every month that brought my cohort together. A significant part of my role was also organising prom, which required me to lead a team in setting strict budgets, fundraising, and finding London venues within our price range. These skills would help me successfully organise BBI social events and the annual research conference. As part of the Leading Change in the Anthropocene Seminar Series organising committee at UCL, I gained experience organising academic events, contacting speakers, and developing contacts. These experiences make me feel confident that I could organise successful events for BBI.