Frequently asked questions about Cambridge Festival 2025.

Q. What is the central Festival team responsible for?

  • Delivering the official full Festival programme
  • Organising a number of Festival events 
  • Working with and providing advice to coordinators 
  • Providing an event booking service 
  • Providing Festival branding and promotional materials to you
  • Maintaining the Festival website and social media channels
  • Marketing/publicising the Festival and working with the media
  • Monitoring overall Health & Safety 
  • Supporting an evaluation process
  • Supporting you to find volunteers for events.

Q. What am I as a coordinator responsible for?

  • Arranging the date/time/venue/platform for your own event 
  • Submitting your event details to us on time
  • Promoting your event to your networks and more widely
  • Including Cambridge Festival branding on your event materials and publicity
  • Recruiting and managing your own volunteers and staff
  • Completing a full risk assessment for your activity, having this checked and signed off by your own Safety Officer and providing this information to the Festival team by the deadline
  • Collecting feedback and event attendee numbers 
  • Asking for help or advice!

Q. Will there be an opportunity to update descriptions after submitting an event?

Yes, though once your proposal has been accepted in EMS you will no longer be able to make the changes yourself and will need to contact us with any updates.

Q. If we want to pencil in an in person drop-in event, how do we do that?

Yes. Please upload your event as normal and highlight that it is a drop-in event in the description.

Q. If we are live streaming, how can we monitor attendance and how can we effectively collect feedback?

This will depend on the platform you use to stream and what type of feedback you are hoping to collect for your event. The Festival team is developing an evaluation toolkit that you can use to collect feedback from different types of events and activities. We will share more information on this as soon as we have it.

Q. Will there be a printed brochure this year?

No. We will no longer be printing a physical programme of events for a number of reasons. We will once again but having a PDF version of the online programme which people can download and print at home if they wish. For events to be included in this we must have ALL details confirmed by the submission deadline. Any details recieved after this will not be able to be updated or changed.

Q. Does the additional technical details deadline include event registration/joining links, or do they need to be in for the submission deadline?

Ideally these should be submitted by the deadline. If you cannot provide your booking like by then, it will need to be submitted by 20 December at the latest.

Q. Where should we add the registration link in EMS?

Please include your registration link in the booking tab in ‘URL’ and select recommended or required at the top.

Q. I don't have a "Safety Officer". Who can sign off my risk assessment?

Every department will have someone who is ultimately in charge of safety for the department. Please check with your department/institution administration or central office in the first instance. You risk assessment will be returned if it is not signed.

Q. Will there be a different theme each year?

Themes will be the same year-on-year: Society, Health, Environment, and Discovery!

When you submit your event, be sure to specify which theme (up to two) that your event sits within. You can still choose any topic/research subject area for your event, and then indicate which theme it sits within.

 

Q. Do we have to determine and organise the digital platform we use?

Yes

Q. Will there be a central place where participants can access our resources, videos, etc?

Yes, the Cambridge Festival website.

Q. Do you have examples of digital events and recommended platforms?

Yes, you can find lots of helpful examples and information on our coordinators web page bit.ly/camcoords. We have also created a digital space where coordinators can share tips, tricks and best practice of digital engagement.

You can also view events from the 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 Festival on our YouTube. 

Q. Can events be pre-recorded or 'recycled', previously hosted events or is it only 'new' events that can be part of the festival?

Yes, it is fine to ‘recycle’ previously hosted events for the Festival.