Thank you to everyone who came to this year's combined ICB / BiCon and made it such a great success.

In total over the five days we had 454 attendees from 28 countries – a new record for a UK BiCon.

We had many requests during the event for a space to put up notes from sessions, or slides, or links to mailing lists, so if you have any of those, please email us at info@bicon2010.org.uk – we'd prefer links ideally rather than files.

We're kicking off our "Post BiCon" (not on archive.org) section with a downloadable version of our logo, with and without text.

Next year's event is ready for your booking too! Why not finish your BiCon 2010 experience with a commitment to attend BiCon 2011?

Many people have asked us if we can arrange for there to be hot food available to buy on site, and we've managed to finally arrange this, with only a day to spare!

We're going to have outside caterers provide a buffet lunch and a buffet dinner each day (Friday to Sunday), and have agreed to a ticket price for this of £7 per person per meal.

The final details are being pinned down right now, but we're hoping the buffet will include clearly labelled vegetarian and vegan options. We're sorry this won't cover all food allergies and restricted diets, but we hope that those of you that do decide to use it will enjoy it!

Please help others to experience BiCon: support the BiCon Helping Hand Fund!

Each year the BiCon organisers aim to just cover the costs of the event: registration and accommodation costs are set so BiCon can break even. The costs of attending are on a sliding scale to make BiCon accessible to as many people as possible. But some people still can't afford to come and experience the sense of community, support – and of course fun! – that BiCon provides.

The BiCon Helping Hand Fund (HHF) exists to enable more people to attend BiCon.

BiCon 2010 inherited money passed on from previous BiCons, and £673 was earmarked for the HHF.

But this year we have experienced unprecedented demand for the HHF. This is partly because 50% more people will be attending this BiCon (333 people have already registered), and because it is a four-night BiCon for the first time in a few years – but the economic downturn is also clearly affecting people and their ability to take part in this unique community event.

We've been able to offer help to 55 people, to make sure that they are able to attend BiCon – but sadly we haven't been able to offer everyone who applied as much support as they asked for. We've tried to offer people who've never been to BiCon whatever they needed to attend (without paying for travel from abroad), but even a few pounds to each person quickly mounts up.

We've dedicated £1500 to the fund this year (although this may ultimately affect the amount of surplus we're able hand on to next year), as well as around £1300 to deal with other accessibility issues.

Over 25 people have contacted us in the last two months saying, "I didn't think I needed the Helping Hand Fund, but I've lost my job and…" – and now that BiCon is fast approaching and people need to pay, more people are unable to afford it, and having to cancel.

For many of us (when we're not involved in the organising team!) BiCon is a time to relax with friends. For people who've never been, it can be a life changing, eye-opening vision of what life can be like when you don't feel out of place, fearful of ostracism, or worse.

A number of people have told us that BiCon has saved their lives.

Please help us to replenish the Helping Hand Fund so that next year's organising team can also make sure people are able to attend their first ever BiCon – and ideally also help people who have been before, but who are in particular need, to attend again.

If you've registered for BiCon you can donate by Paypal here, by bank transfer using the details you received when booking (use "HHF" as a reference code), or you can donate when you're attending BiCon – there will be a number of ways to donate at the event.

Also, if you are willing to donate any items that would make good raffle prizes, please email bookings@delete.

As someone who once received HHF funding (back when all BiCon could do was provide a £10 rebate after the event), and on behalf of the whole BiCon 2010 team, thank you very much!

– Hessie

The BiCon Booklet

It's less than a week to BiCon and we've just got the programme booklet back from the printers. Everyone who attends BiCon is given one of these on arrival – packed with vital information it's your guide to what's going on and where it'll be happening. It also contains the BiCon Code of Conduct, useful information on the local area, what to do in an emergency and a description of every session we've scheduled so far.

If you're attending BiCon we'll give you a paper copy on arrival, but in case you can't wait here's a sneak preview! (pdf) (not on archive.org)

The Grid in iCal

Over on Facebook someone asked us if they could have the sessions list as an iCal file, and we thought that if that would be useful to the one person who asks for it, it must also be useful to others who haven't. Please note: we're not going to be maintaining this during the event for room alterations, cancelled or new sessions – check the BiCon Daily news-sheet each morning for details of those! The iCal file (not on archive.org).

Moving Registrations Offline

BiCon is nearly here, and as part of our preparations we're closing online registrations at the end of Friday the 20th of August. This will allow us to make sure the list of people who've pre-paid doesn't increase after we've printed it out!

You will still be able to register in person at BiCon (for the whole weekend or just the day!) simply by coming along to BiCon and paying on the day, cash sterling only. Day tickets start at just £10.

Be Prepared!

If you're staying on-site at BiCon, you should by now know which flat you're staying in. If not, please email venue@bicon2010.org.uk. Some enterprising BiCon attendees have reported to us that they've successfully ordered an online supermarket delivery (with Ocado) based on this information, and we thought this was such a good idea we'd pass it on to you! We're using two of the accommodation blocks – Shepherd (3 University Way, London E16 2GB) and Templars (1 University Way, London E16 2GA), if you want to try it with any of the supermarkets that offer delivery services.

Unfortunately we've now filled the limited number of spaces we have for car-parking at BiCon on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. If you haven't requested a parking space and supplied us with your car registration number, then we're sorry that we don't have a parking space for you on-site. Off site the nearest car parks are at Tescos on the Gallions Reach Shopping Park (10 minutes away by bus).

After 5pm on the Friday we have more spaces available, but we still need to give a list of car registration numbers to the security staff – if you are thinking of bringing a car from Friday evening then please ensure you have emailed your car registration plate details to venue@deleted

This restriction does not apply to disabled badge holders, although you'll still need to supply your car registration to venue@deleted

On Saturday at BiCon we're going to have a market as a number of our attendees have asked if they can bring along bi (or other) merchandise to sell. We've decided the best way to accommodate these wishes is to schedule a marketplace on Saturday afternoon.

Between 1pm and 4.45pm it'll be on the upper level in the bar – if you'd like to reserve a table please email info@bicon2010.org.uk

Our plans to allow this years BiCon registrations to be spread over multiple payments have been very successful. A large number of people have booked for the event, over 300 now.

In the next week we need to give figures and details to the university for the on-site accommodation, and a number of people have booked and reserved bedrooms but not yet paid any of their combined fees.

We cannot afford to pay for bedrooms that end up being unused.

If you have not yet paid any money to BiCon for your residential booking, please either login and pay us a deposit or email bookings@deleted to discuss your situation. Please do one of these before August 15th, or we'll have to stop holding your reservation.

We will be unable to release the key to your reserved accommodation if you have not paid the remainder of your BiCon booking fee either before you arrive at BiCon or on arrival in cash.

We've received confirmation from the venue about what will be supplied in the on-site accommodation.

The kitchens are equipped with:

• Kettle
• Microwave
• Fridge/freezer
• Cooking hob
• Oven
• Sink
• Washing up liquid
• Dishcloth
• Mugs
• Teaspoons

And the rooms have:

• Bedclothes
• Towels
• Toilet pack
• Tea/coffee pack

Have you seen someone wearing one of our logo pin badges? We're going to have these for sale for £1 at BiCon, until they sell out. We're really pleased with how they've turned out, and hope the design will become a bisexual symbol in its own right.

Speaking of badges, just a reminder: keep hold of the registration badge (with your name on it) that you collect when you arrive at our Registration Desk. It's your pass to the daytime sessions and the social events (including access to the bar). We will not be permitting access to these without one, so please don't forget it!