One of the downsides of having an event at the end of November / start of December is that the likely weather makes it more probable that people will have some sort of infection, including Covid-19.
If you're ill on the days running up to BiCon or even on the day, just email us and we'll give you a full refund.
Turn up while clearly coughing / sneezing / otherwise infectious, and we won't let you in and you won't get a refund.
In an ideal world, it would still be free to get Covid-19 tests and vaccines would be freely available to everyone who wanted them. The decisions of successive governments mean that's not the case in the UK any more.
We could make a big point about encouraging people to be up to date with vaccinations, where medically possible, and to always wear masks in BiCon spaces, but we know that while most people have been vaccinated against Covid-19, it probably wasn't in the past year and it's very unlikely that most people will mask even if we did.
(Yes, that's not great, but pretending otherwise is not going to help anyone.)
If you want people to socially distance when in sessions, we'll have some orange lanyards to wear as a sign of that, and – spaced out! – chairs for such people in the rooms where possible as a bigger hint.
If you're running a session and want to insist people attending wear a mask, that's fine. We will help publicise that, so people can either bring one and wear it or not go to your session. (Arguing at the door that it doesn't apply to them or otherwise trying to get in anyway will be treated as a serious Code of Conduct violation.)
In terms of air quality, the venue is noticably better than most. CO2 levels on the site visit were the same as outside (albeit this was after almost everyone else had left.) The main hall has a very ceiling, another one has some high ceilings and other rooms have higher ones than my home. All the rooms have air conditioning.
We realise that it's not the same, but it is also looking more likely that there will be some online BiCon happening this year.