They say, “Do what you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life”, which must explain why working with OE to deliver BNA2021 felt less like a work project, and more like a getting together with friends to combine forces, share goals, overcome challenges, celebrate successes, and thoroughly enjoy the process along the way.
That’s not to say that doing what you love doesn’t simultaneously involve a lot of hard work too. Along with many others, the BNA’s buzzwords of 2020 included uncertainty, anxiety and constantly moving goalposts. Throughout it all the OE team barely batted an eyelid, as we changed from in-person to socially-distanced to 100% online, but instead rolled up their sleeves and worked alongside us to make it happen. All the OE staff were committed, professional, thorough, and always cognisant of the BNA membership’s particular needs. It was genuinely like having an extension of the BNA’s own team, but with the added wealth of talent and experience brought by OE.
As always, the most important outcome of an event is how it is received by its audience. BNA2021 was received overwhelmingly positively by delegates, sponsors, supporters, and speakers too, frequently with praise for the organisation as much as the content. Maintaining good relations with all our stakeholders like this is incredibly important for the BNA.
In short, having OE as our events management company for BNA2021 ensured that we not only met our chief goal of bringing together the neuroscience community in an effective, valuable, enjoyable conference during a very challenging time, but also did so in a way that exuded professionalism, delivered on budget, and means we cannot wait to get ‘not working’ on the next one.
