The RMS has a long history of hosting events on behalf of Societies, providing the administrative support and organisational time needed to run successful events. These include:
- Crick Electron Microscopy Symposium
- SuperSTEM Summer School
- ESRIC Super-Resolution Summer School
- 18th European Light Microscopy Initiative (elmi2018)
- Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy Conference 2016 & Virtual 12th Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy Conference 2020
- emc2020 & Virtual Early Career European Microscopy Congress 2020
- Virtual European Light Microscopy Initiative 2021 (elmi2021)
- European Light Microscopy Initiative 2024 (elmi2024)
- Expansion Microscopy User Group Meetings
- International Microscopy Congress 2026 (IMC21)
The RMS can offer practical support for anyone planning to hold virtual meetings, conferences and online training in relation to microscopy.
For the cost of staff time only, the Society provides a range of services, from use of its Zoom account and help with registration, through to fully organising and hosting small or large-scale online events.
Since the impact of Covid-19, the RMS has hosted a wide range of meetings, conferences and webinars via its preferred platform, Zoom, gaining a wealth of experience in the process. Recent virtual events have included the highly successful Flow Cytometry Course and Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy Conference 2020, for which more than 800 people registered. The Society has also staged a series of hugely popular online forums to support international microscopy facilities returning to work in a post-Covid environment.
RMS Events Director Victoria Masters said:
“Whether you’re planning a small meeting for 10 people or setting up a big online conference, the RMS can offer the support you need to make your event a success. Our staff have a wealth of knowledge and experience covering a wide range of virtual events, and can help you get the very best out of your online interactions.”
The RMS is a registered charity, and all fees go towards its ongoing work supporting and promoting microscopy around the world.
If you have an event that the Society could assist with, please fill in the initial interest form below and we will be in contact.
Alternatively if you would like to discuss your meeting needs first, please contact Victoria Masters.
Testimonials
Virtual Light Sheet Meeting 2020
"We decide to move our annual conference/workshop on light-sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) online for the first time at very short notice (end of July 2020) and the RMS was able to very rapidly put together an excellent meeting that was held at the end of September 2020. They embraced our new approach to our conference all the way from sponsored quizzes for each session to the democratic selection of contributed oral presentations. The RMS staff were always positive and helpful even though time was short. Communication was smooth and friendly making our conference a success. We had a record attendance (800+ this year online vs 350 maximum in previous physical meetings), the new format of short talks was well attended, and we have been praised on social media and received many positive emails after the conference. Even with 7 co-organisers and more sponsors than we could include, they always stayed on top of things and remained proactive afterwards to provide feedback, follow up and monitor online material. This was one of the best LSFM conference’s Emmanuel's organized since the meeting started in 2009, striving to deliver more gender balance, to deliver a friendly environment (the chat box and questions flowed throughout), to reach new countries and to release less carbon. We would definitely use the RMS’ services again in the future!"
Chris Dunsby, Imperial College London and Emmanuel Reynaud, University College Dublin
Virtual Early Career emc2020
"In the wake of the cancellation of the European Microscopy Congress 2020 (EMC2020) due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was with short notice decided that a Virtual Early Career European Microscopy Congress 2020 should be organized. The purpose of this virtual event was to allow the young career scientist, who had submitted an accepted abstract to the EMC2020, a chance to present in public. In spite of the limited time at hand, this virtual event was organized flawlessly by the Royal Microscopical Society (RMS). The conference attracted 612 registrants from 47 different countries. A subsequent post event survey among the delegates was to no surprise extremely positive.
The organization of the Virtual Early Career European Microscopy Congress 2020 was from day one in safe hands with the RMS and I am very grateful for all the efforts.
In conclusion, I can warmly recommend the RMS as a chosen PCO to organize such virtual conferences in the future."
Klaus Qvortrup, University of Copenhagen, emc2020 Chair
Virtual elmi2021
“The elmi2021 meeting was originally planned as an in person event and needed to be transformed into a virtual event at rather short notice. We are very grateful that the RMS was able to very efficiently support this event as a virtual format. With 612 registered participants it exceeded the number of attendees of previous in-person meetings, but still kept the familiar ELMI feeling as much as possible in the online setting. Feedback of the participants via the post event survey was very positive as well.”
Stefan Terjung, EMBL Heidelberg, elmi Organiser