Behind the scenes

While updating the website, BCP and getting the fundamentals sorted takes a significant amount of time and effort, there are far more things going on in the background.

Only a week after the inaugural, we started going through the budget, our experiences and incoming feedback. Very early we identified a number of things we wanted to improve upon. Some of that is readily visible on the website, but other things are subject to communications and deals made behind the scenes.

While conducting pre-planning and updating the website, there was also considerable effort put into writing applications for investment funds, sponsorhips and collaborations with various corporations. This work was completed only a few weeks ago, but the results may not be seen for a couple of months, if at all.

We managed to maintain prices for hotel rooms at the same rates for 2026 as for this year. We switched one of the hotels for another which is slightly closer to the venue.

We are making attempts at making deals that could make it cheaper to attend the event, but this is so much work with such a small probability of success that I really can`t talk about it yet.

For 2026 there will be an entirely new payment system where tickets, food, drink, hotel etc can all be ordered at the same time. A menu for lunch at the venue is being put together and we hope to share pictures of the food soon.

Food and drink is considered vital for next years event and we are putting significant effort into providing a good experience. There is a complex interaction between sponsorships, collaborations and negotiations with venue and catering going into the final product and this might not be sorted for some months yet.

Streaming at the event is an important element of next year, but deciding on the scale is taking time, though streaming the new award ceremony is high on the agenda. The scale of this will be subject to what grants we manage to get awarded.

The paperwork that has been done since february is staggering, but hopefully some good things will come from that effort. We really hope to be able to share good news.