VACUUM SYMPOSIUM UK

Background

The Vacuum Symposium UK series of meetings grew out of a ‘call’ from the UK vacuum community for an annual national meeting incorporating both technical and commercial elements.

The first meeting (Daresbury Laboratory, 10/11 February 2010) was organised by the RGA User Group that had previously staged a number of one day meetings starting in 1996.  Indeed, VS1 incorporated the 9^th RGA User Group Meeting that continues to grow in size.

The aim of Vacuum Symposium UK was exactly the same as had been modelled by the RGA User Group Meetings, but embracing a wider cross-section of vacuum users: regular ‘free to attend’ meetings that allowed interaction between academics, industrial users and manufacturers, financed by sponsorship and a small-scale exhibition.

Administration

Following VS1 the RGA User Group was incorporated as a registered Charity (Registration No. 1137989) with the working title of Vacuum Symposium UK.  This gave the organising committee a formalised structure with complete independence from other vacuum work affiliations.

The defined Object of the RGA User Group charity is: The advancement of education for the public benefit in vacuum science and technology by promoting understanding and application through an annual meeting and other educational activities.

The Charity Trustees are:-
            Robin Hathaway, SS Scientific Limited
            Joe Herbert, ASTeC Vacuum Group, STFC Daresbury Laboratory
            Steve Shannon, SS Scientific Limited
            Sunil Patel, ISIS Vacuum Group, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

Meetings

The scale, scope and location of Vacuum Symposium meetings will be determined by the Trustees. 

We will continue to take input from all the UK Vacuum community.  In particular, we value sponsors of the meeting that can make financial and/or organisational contributions to the meeting.

Our remit is to put on interesting and wide-ranging programmes that reach out to the diverse spectrum of vacuum users.  The Trustees welcome anyone with experience and contacts to assist in bringing about our aim.

Future

The association of Vacuum Symposium UK with Vacuum Expo (exhibition organised by Xmark Media Ltd.) for the VS2 meeting held at Coventry (18/19 October 2011) has allowed the organisers to sample a different meeting structure that shares the workload. 

Learning from past experiences, it is the Trustees intention to continue to work with Laurence Devereux (Xmark Media), to build a successful Vacuum Symposium UK annual meeting co-located with the Vacuum Expo exhibition.