Publicity. We only advertised through Malcolm MacCallum's list, and through our own web site.
Timing. We canvassed some opinion and went for the beginning of the Easter vac. By accident term was not over yet in Sheffield U, but no other complaints were received.
Duration. Two days seemed about right: time to get together but not too tiresome. Also possible to get two days' worth for one overnight stay. We had originally planned to allow most participants to stay only one night by planning a late start on day 1 and an early finish on day 2. But in order to accommodate all the speakers, we started at 11 am on day 1 and finished at 6 pm on day 2. It seems that many participants spent 2 or 3 nights anyway, and there were no complaints.
Web site. Important to think of how this is updated continuously without fuss as speakers sign up, send abstracts, change their slots etc. We used LaTex originals and tth (Tex to html) to update the web page from it. Restaurant/pub list. Hotel list. Links to University info (maps).
Accommodation. To save work we only put a list of relatively close B+Bs with location, distance from meeting, phone numbers and prices, on the web. This seemed to work well.
Directions. These were given on the BritGrav web page and photocopied city and campus maps were supplied on registration. There were also signs put up in and outside the Maths building.
Parking. We held a few parking permits but it was hard to get the correct numbers needed early. There was not much of a problem finding parking spaces in the vacation.
Registration. This was held during pre-talks coffee. A secretary ticked off names and handed out bumf and nametags. It was good to have a personal welcome this way.
Handouts. This consisted of the schedule of talks, a list of participants, a map and some bumf on Southampton U.
Lecture room. We had a room accommodating 100 which felt comfortable for the 70 or so participants. It was equipped with an OH projector, chalkboard and data projector. We did not have to pay for the use of the room.
Meeting and Tea/Coffee room. We used the staff/student common rooms.
Breaks. 30 mins mid-morning and mid-afternoon, 2 hours for lunch and not shorter!
Coffee. We provided tea, coffee, biscuits, using the Senior Common Room, with a (non GR) grad student serving. This worked well for us and was the only cost incurred.
Food. As it rained, most participants headed for the University Staff Club, but we took small groups to various pubs too.
Conference dinner. We booked a coach (outwards journey only) and paid for it on the night with a collection. We reserved a buffet dinner in an Indian restaurant. It was supposed to be in a room reserved for our use, but in fact we shared it with others. It was hard to get correct numbers early. Collecting cash on the night for the meal worked fine. After dinner speaker was provided from within the ranks of the organisers.
Computer access. This was provided but there was not much use. It is probably not crucial at future meetings.
Schedule. We attempted to sort sessions roughly by topic, although there was some last minute changing around, but it largely worked.
Talks. In order to accommodate everyone who wanted to speak, talks were restricted to 10 minutes with 2 minutes for discussion, and no longer. We picked session chairmen likely to enforce this rigidly, and gave them a stop watch and green (2 minutes to go), yellow (1 minute to go) and red (please stop) cards to hold up to the speaker. Getting this right seems important for morale.
Proceedings. None were planned, but we did submit a list of abstracts to gr-qc (although only 15 out of 49 talks appeared to have a corresponding gr-qc preprint) and a short report to Matters of Gravity.
Classical and Quantum Gravity. They hosted a drinks reception at the end of the first day and provided funds for a 50 pounds prize for the best presentation by a postgraduate student. The winner was chosen by a panel of three session chairman.
BritGrav02. Will be held at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London U in 2002.
Moral. It proved remarkably easy to organise, so do not be afraid to volunteer your institution as a future host.