Getting there and related questions
The easy questions are where and when: BiCon will be held at Oak House and Owens Park, which are two adjacent Hall of Residence buildings in the Fallowfield Campus of the University of Manchester. The main part of conference will run between the 27th and 30th of August, though reception and the bar will be open on the evening of Thursday 26th August as well for the early arrivals.
WHERE ARE YOU SLEEPING!?
Onsite accommodation at Oak House is in single-bed bedrooms in flats of 8 bedrooms. They have excellent kitchens, shower/bath, and sitting room, shared between the 8 of you. If you have booked in advance and asked to be put near friends we have tried to put you in the same flat but cannot promise you will be together. The accommodation fee includes all the nights of the conference, and the option of staying on the Monday and Tuesday night at the end as well if you want to explore the city. Please note that there is no catering included, but a variety of supermarkets are in easy walking distance, and the flats have well-equipped kitchens. There are also three cashpoints on site and more inside the nearest supermarket.
GETTING THERE - BY CAR
Multimap shows you the way better than words could. There is car parking available at the venue; you will need to pick up a pass from BiCon reception.
If you find multimap difficult to use there is a map here too.
GETTING THERE - BY COACH
If you are coming by coach to Manchester you will arrive at Chorlton Street coach station. About 200 metres away is a bus stop served by many buses going to Fallowfield & Owens Park - services going to the right place include the 40, 42, 45, 142, 143. As the road to Owens Park is the busiest bus route in Europe there will probably be a bus going to the right place before too long! You need a ticket to Owens Park in Fallowfield - the price varies considerably depending which bus you catch, it shouldn't be much more than a pound though. Owens Park has about 6,000 students living there most of the year, so bus drivers will know where it is!
GETTING THERE - BY TRAIN
By train you will arrive at either Manchester Piccadilly or Victoria. Either way, the easiest thing to do is to take a tram to PICCADILLY GARDENS and get on any of the buses listed above. (It's only about 5 to 10 minutes walk if you choose to follow the tram tracks, but do make sure you don't get run over!)
GETTING THERE - BY PLANE
Planes arriving at Manchester Airport are served by buses including the 42A and 45A both of which go past Owens Park on the way into the city centre. GMPTE has details of bus services around the city.
WHAT WILL BE GOING ON EACH DAY?
Because of the volunteer-led nature of BiCon, most of the programme is not finalised until the last week or so before it takes place. This makes telling you the details of what will happen each day rather tricky - we won't quite know ourselves until just before it happens!
The daytime programme will have a mixture of workshops, discussions, guest speakers and so forth. In the evening we have discos and live music - we are once again running a DIY Disco so get mixing up your own 20 minute CDs. There will again be a community fundraising art auction in the form of Line Bi Line. And of course there will be market stalls, "networking" in the bar, and all the other delights that a BiCon brings.
The full printed programme of the weekend will be ready when you arrive at BiCon, but as usual there will be Impromptu Workshop slots for spontaneously created sessions through the course of the weekend.
IT'S NOT TOO LATE!
We would still welcome further offers of workshops, and submissions for
the art exhibition.