As our office is on the waterfront in Ipswich, we do get some fantastic views.  With it being Summer, and holiday time (and being close to a Pokegym for those of you in the know), we do get a high number of people walking past the office all through the day.  To give you a flavour of what we can see, take a look at the time lapse video at the end of this post – it’s worth it, especially for the boat that seems to just be driving aimlessly in circles. 
 
We do not run any events in August, so it is a useful time of year to take stock and prepare for what is upcoming in a busy final third of the year.  The obvious centerpiece of the between now and the end of the year is the Annual Conference, which returns to Brighton between the 9th to 11th November.  Our 3 pre-conference training courses are already being booked up, which considering the diversity  (Implementing GCLP, An Introduction to GDP and Vendor and Sponsor Cooperation in Clinical Trials), isn’t surprising.  A discount is available for anyone who also attends the conference, so bear that in mind if you can take the opportunity to join us early.  The conference itself is shaping up very well.  We are excited to have 2 high quality Keynote speakers in John Oakland and Lord Robert Winston, who will bookend 2 and a half days of quality conversation about a wide variety of topics.  In addition, we will be welcoming over 25 exhibitors, as well as displaying a multitude of topical posters from our committees and individuals.  I really enjoyed the conference being held in Brighton two years ago, and am looking forward to a new venue as well as hopefully having a little bit of time to take in some of the fantastic restaurants and attractions (especially the new British Airways i360, which is adjacent to the Hilton Metropole).  The early bird rate finishes in 2 weeks so if you are looking to attend and save a little bit of money while doing so, book now.
 
As part of my role, I am always looking to try new ways of enhancing our learning products.  I was therefore extremely happy to receive an invitation to join the Tutors of our Advanced Auditing Skills:  Audit Analysis and Reporting course in Cambridge last week, to shoot some footage for use on a course in the future.  This is a great step forward in using technology to enhance our offerings, and I hope it the first of many opportunities to use my skills in this area.
 
We have 3 Regional Forums between now and the end of the year, in 3 different countries – Belgium, USA and back in the UK for the North of England.  Follow the links for full information.  Our Course programme is also very busy between now and the end of the year with 16 courses between September and November.  Delegate feedback for the year so far has been excellent, and this bodes well for our transition on the vast majority of our courses to electronic material.  This enables us to electronically send delegates the material beforehand for them to either print, or keep on a device of their choosing.  We will be reviewing how this is administrated in the near future and will look to make any necessary changes to give the best service we can to our delegates.
 
If you have any comments or queries, please feel free to leave a comment below or get in touch with us through the website.

A Happy New Year
I am the last one in the office to write an office blog, and I have been waiting a long time just so I can say ‘Arsenal – top of the Premier League’ (don’t know how long for though).
2015 was a very good year for the RQA as highlighted below, with a number of records being broken:

• Record numbers of delegates attending the Annual Conference in Leeds -260 delegates.
• A Conference App was very successfully introduced at the Annual Conference with over 94% of delegates using the App
• Social media group numbers all increased, with LinkedIn members increasing by over 150% to 6,248
• We held 94 Learning events with a total of 912 attendees
• We have 10 eLearning courses with 422 delegates purchasing these and all courses are now SCORM compliant
• We tripled our Webcast offering with a lot more to follow
• We introduced electronic course material and feedback
• We introduced a new Professional Development Course – ISO9001:2015
• A new Regional Forum was developed and held its first meeting in the USA
• We entered three categories in the Association Excellence Awards 2016 and have been chosen as a finalist in each of these – Best Association Website, Best Association newsletter – Quasar and Best Development of an Existing Association Event under 300 delegates – 2015 RQA Annual Conference. The awards ceremony is being held on 26th February 2016 so fingers crossed!
• The new publication – ‘Management of the Training and Competency of Personnel in GxP and Research Environments’ – which is available as a free download for Members is now available on the RQA website. The publication can also be purchased as a hard copy for Members/Non-Members and electronically for Non-Members. The publication is a best practice guide directed towards trainees, management and trainers and anyone else involved with training and development.

One of the most significant changes was the restructuring of the RQA Board where we split the RQA Board into a Strategic Board and an Operational Management Committee which took effect at the AGM in Leeds in November 2015.
 
Looking forward to 2016, our newly formed Operational Management Committee, will meet for the first time in January 2016 to review and update the Operational Plan to enable the successful delivery of the Strategic Plan. Information on this will be cascaded to the membership in due course.

Our Professional Development Course programme starts again in February with three courses - the Auditing Course, GLP for Study Directors, Principal Investigators, Study Staff and Management & Audit Analysis and Reporting.

We will be introducing a new eLearning course very soon – VICH GCP which should be a very useful resource for individuals and companies.

The 2nd European QA Conference being held at the Nice Acropolis in Nice, France during the period 25th -29th April 2016 is now open for delegate and exhibitor/sponsorship bookings including pre-conference training. Visit the conference website The 2nd European QA Conference being held at the Nice Acropolis in Nice, France during the period 25th -29th April 2016 is now open for delegate and exhibitor/sponsorship bookings including pre-conference training. Visit the conference website at:
www.european-qa-conference.com.
 
Planning is also under way for the 2016 RQA Annual Conference with the first Programme Committee meeting being held in January. Just to remind you that the conference will be held at the Hilton Hotel, Brighton during 7th – 11th November 2016 including pre-conference training.
Look out for further information coming soon.

So as you can see it’s going to be a very exciting and busy 2016 for all.

​It’s my turn for the November blog and it’s a month of good news!
 
We have recently trialled three new venues for our public courses due to feedback on Madingley Hall regarding poor wifi and location. We are pleased to say two venues received fantastic feedback and we will be using the Berystede in Ascot and the Radisson at Stansted to give more variety of location for events in the future. 
 
We have revised the learning pages on our website to give much clearer information on our courses and products. This will continue to be enhanced over the coming months, including more information on tutors and clearer learning objectives.
 
A lot of this month’s work has centered round the annual conference, which this year was in Leeds. It was the first year we have used ‘Catchbox’ as microphones and a conference app. which was a resounding success and excellently supported by the company’s representative, Matt.
 
Pre-conference training was also very successful, including the first run of a new course ‘Getting to Grips with ISO9001:2015’, as well as moving the third annual offering of GLP for Study Directors et al, from Madingley Hall to Leeds and Managing an Audit Programme, which last happened at the 1st European QA Conference in 2013.
 
During the conference we had our AGM which included reports from our Chairman and Treasurer, voting on various matters including appointing Vanessa Grant as Chair Elect and said goodbye to ten board members who retired, mainly due to the Board
​restructuring.
​
​Congratulations to Tracy Gilbert on winning the ‘RQA Award’
​
A new booklet was launched at our conference titled ‘Management of the training and competency of personnel in GxP and research environments: Part 1 An introduction to training systems’.  As a benefit to our members this can be downloaded free from our website.
 
Many thanks for everyone who completed the Membership Satisfaction Survey.  The office staff have discussed the results and suggested some responses and actions for Anthony to discuss at the Board and Strategy meeting in January.  Following on from this, information will be communicated to our members so watch this space.
 
Many congratulations to Danielle and family on the safe arrival of Gabriel Morley Andrews on 20th November.  We look forward to meeting him soon.
 
Sarah

​Now that summer’s decided to desert us here in Ipswich, it’s time for the September blog entry...
 
Changes are afoot with our professional development courses as we trial brand new venues and courses.  The recent Systems Approach to Good PV Practice at the Berystede Hotel & Spa in Ascot was very well received by all, and October’s Practical PV Auditing course will be held at the Park Inn Hotel at Heathrow for the first time.  We have a brand new course principal too, with Madeleine Fairweather running an inhouse course at the beginning of October and also the Getting to Grips with ISO:9001 course as part of our pre-conference training in November.  We will soon be launching a new learning area on our website too, which should give everyone a much clearer overview of all of our courses.  Watch this space....
 
The search for next year’s Annual Conference venue has also begun, and even the search for the next Global QA Conference in 2017 is underway.  Staying with the Annual Conference, the launch of our new conference app will soon be upon us. The app will help conference attendees find their way around the hotel and give instant access to the conference programme and presentations.  Next year’s 2nd European QA Conference is fast approaching, and booking for exhibitor spaces will be available imminently.
 
Here in the office, Anthony is off to the last Board meeting under the current constitution.  Changes to the Articles of Association voted for by members at the EGM back in June will take effect after the September Board meeting.
 
On a social note, as Emma mentioned last month, we have no birthdays to celebrate until December, which is sad, but not enough of an excuse to stop us eating cake...  We took part in the coffee and cake morning to raise a some money for Macmillan Cancer Support.  Many thanks in particular to Jane who took on the baking duties.

Last but certainly not least, we’d also like to wish Danielle all the best as she heads off on maternity leave.

So, now it’s over to me to let you know what’s happening in the world of RQA, so let’s see…

Early bird conference bookings finished with a bang with over 70 registrations in the last week alone, but don’t worry if you haven’t booked your place yet, there is still plenty of time to secure your spot for the highlight of the RQA calendar in Leeds. You definitely won’t want to miss the chance to test out the new ‘Catchbox’ that arrived in the office this month. It’s the future of roving microphones and means we can play a bit of throw and catch during question time at this year’s conference!

Next week sees the start of the autumn/winter semester for RQA professional development courses and we will be running courses at two new venues alongside the traditional Madingley Hall where the majority of our courses will still be taking place. The two sites in question are both located near to Heathrow airport and make for easier travel for a lot of our overseas delegates. I will have the pleasure of sampling what the new hotels have to offer as I will be giving setup support at the first course at the Berystede Hotel & Spa in September and also the first course running at the Park Inn by Radisson London Heathrow in October. I am very keen to see if they both live up to our high expectations of what a training venue should provide.

Last semester we trialled a couple of courses using more of a paper free delivery and this is something that we will be working on developing further this course year starting with the introduction of electronic feedback on all courses moving forward. Next month’s GCP Auditing – Principles and Practice course will be run in this more environmentally friendly manner and our hope is to ‘Electrify’ (as we like to call it in the office) all courses over the next few years.

Also on the electronic front we have just released a new eLearning course entitled ‘An Introduction to Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP)’. Thanks to all of Carl’s hard work this is the first eLearning offering to be completely managed by our new Articulate software which is SCORM compliment and will gradually replace our current technology for all eLearning as time progresses. We have also released a few new webcasts this month so check out the ever increasing list when you get a chance.

In other news the programme for the first ever USA Regional Forum was released last week (full details can be found on the website) and the Annual Report is currently being compiled and will be available in the Members’ area very soon.

And finally this month’s social notes… Finishing our recent run of office birthdays we celebrated Tony’s this month (no more until December now)….. The second annual office staff BBQ was hosted by Jane and a good time was had by all – particularly those of us enjoying the Pimms! ….. And most excitingly building work at Isaacs bar next door has finally come to an end (no more incessant drilling, hammering, shaking walls etc.) so now we’re just waiting for some free pizzas for the office when they open the doors to Pizza al Taglio next month!

Well, now it’s my turn.  I’m Jane and am the Learning and Promotions Administrator.  I joined RQA in October last year and met a few of you at the Conference in Brighton – I apologise if I did and don’t recognise you at this year’s, it was all a bit of blur!

A new free webcast has been produced and is now on the website – QA Perspective on Tiered Approach on Bioanalytical Method Approach with Michelle Manton as the speaker.

The upcoming conferences are being worked on – both Leeds (11th-13th November 2015)   and Nice in April 2016.  Leeds is open for booking, places available at  with pre-conference training taking place on 10th-12th November.

Nice will be available for booking shortly, keep an eye on the RQA website!

We have the USA Regional Forum on 6th October in Cincinnati.

Following from the last blog, Carl’s presentation went very well at the Technology for Associations Congress, congratulations to him.

We held the EGM at the Anglia Regional Forum at which Anthony gleaned a new job title – Director of Operations.

By now, as a member, you should have received this quarter’s copy of Quasar with the theme ‘Social Media’, complete with all its great articles.

Excitement is building in the run up to Emma’s wedding at the end of the month, let’s hope this glorious weather holds for her!

Finally, the office birthday to celebrate this month is Sarah! Felicitations to her!

Here in Ipswich it looks like the summer has finally arrived – at last. The weather is sunny and warm but not as hot as it is in Rio de Janeiro where Past Chairman Louise Handy represented RQA at the 4th World Congress on Research Integrity (www.wcri2015.org). We hope that she met lots of interesting people and gained valuable insight into this rapidly developing region.

In the RQA office we’re busy putting together the materials for forthcoming training courses, as well as the preparation of the Statutory Accounts, planning for the RQA Conference and the European Conference, and the organisation of the Extraordinary General Meeting on 25 June 2015. All Full Members will have received the Notice of the EGM and should exercise their right to vote – postal/email votes are open until Friday 19 June. 

Just a reminder that registration is open for the RQA Conference in Leeds in November – don’t miss the opportunity to network with colleagues and peers, attend innovative and motivating presentations, workshops and clinics, and hear award-winning keynote speaker Ben Goldacre (https://twitter.com/bengoldacre).

We recently published a free webcast entitled ‘What is social media?’ which explains how the RQA uses the major social networks.

The latest webcast to be published by RQA is the ‘Definitive Guide to ISO 9001:2015’ which is based upon the current draft standard. We also developed a ‘taster’ for this webcast so that some of the content can be viewed before purchasing. We’re currently working on a ‘Getting to Grips with ISO 9001:2105’ training course which will be launched later this year – email us at courses@therqa.com for more information. Full details of all RQA training courses are included in the prospectus which is being drafted for publication later this month.

We’re excited that Carl has been invited to speak at the forthcoming Technology for Associations Congress; he’ll be talking about building communities before, during and after an event. We consider this to be an endorsement of the great work and effort that Carl has put into the development of learning – well done to Carl.

We have some more good news from the RQA office – Danielle is expecting a baby, which is due in November. Congratulations to Danielle and her husband, James.

Also, last but not least, it’s Gareth’s birthday on 22 June – Happy Birthday to Gareth!

This is the first time I’ve written a blog entry since I took a year out with my now Husband, James, 8 years ago in 2007 and we religiously kept a blog for everywhere we visited. I’m not sure the content is going to be quite so exciting or varied, but I’ll try my best!

The first piece of exciting news in the RQA office this month is that Emma, our Administrator (Education), has got engaged to her Fiancé, Peter after over 10 years’ together! Emma and Peter are getting married in Suffolk in July 2015. We all wish them the very biggest of congratulations and although Emma and I don’t often work on the same days, I’ve heard the rest of the team are kept well informed of wedding admin progress!

Also, Carl, who introduced himself in the last blog post, has been asked to speak at the Technology for Associations Congress on the 1st July 2015 at the Hilton Metropole in London. Carl will be speaking, (roughly) on developing your conference community further, from downloadable content to moderation tips. We are very excited, if a little nervous, for him and wish him the best of luck on the day!

Onto more RQA focused activities…

Delegate bookings for the RQA 2015 Annual Conference, Smart Quality: A Fresh Perspective, which is being held in Leeds from 11th – 13th November are now officially open. If you are attending as a full delegate and wish to take advantage of the reduced delegate fees, make sure you register before 23rd August 2015.

Last month, Tony and Anthony from the office attended the SQA 31st Annual Meeting and Quality College in Tampa, Florida. They setup an RQA office on site and RQA had a stand in the exhibition area. RQA members also made the trip to the USA to both attend and to speak.

We are hoping that by the 21st May our new style webcasts will be launched. The new webcasts will now enable participants to receive a Certificate of Completion once they have finished (rather than the currently Certificate of Participation) and they will provide participants with the option of being able to view and download (on some mobile devices) them. We will also be publishing two more free webcasts about social media and ISO 9001:2015 shortly, these will both be available on YouTube.

Whilst on the topic of social media, our followers on all platforms, but especially LinkedIn has risen dramatically over the past few months. Since May 2014 we have increased from 670 connections to a massive 4100!

Sarah has given me her (extremely exciting, you must admit!) financial news for May – RQA are in the process of being officially French VAT registered so that we will be able to process bookings for the EU Conference in Nice in April 2016!

Any finally - Carl and Anthony are both celebrating their birthday on 31st May – Happy Birthday boys!

 

 

A quick video glimpse of what the RQA office looks like - say 'Hello' to Sarah, Danielle, Gareth and Tony (with Carl behind the camera)!