Open Cambridge is a celebration of our community, heritage, history and stories of Cambridge and the surrounding area.
Open Cambridge aims to provide an inclusive platform to showcase extraordinary spaces, places and people. Taking place over ten days, Open Cambridge aims to bring together the Cambridge community to celebrate, discover and explore across the city.
Open Cambridge runs in conjunction with Heritage Open Days. Contributors are welcome to programme their event around HOD theme yearly theme. Contributors are not restricted by this theme, OC has always enjoyed a very eclectic mix of events, which is part of its charm.
Mailing list
We send out important updates, opportunities and useful resources to all event coordinators via email. Please sign up here: https://news.cam.ac.uk/p/6DCF-4QU/subscribe-to-the-open-cambridge-contributors-mailing-list
Important dates and deadlines
6 May - Event Management System opens
5 July - Event submission deadline
8 August - Heritage Open Days event submission deadline (To be organised by OC team)
12 August - Programme goes online and bookings open for events
29 August - Deadline for submitting risk assessments and public liability insurance
6-13 September - Open Cambridge 2024
Submitting your event details
All coordinators must submit their events into our Event Management System (EMS). We have created a full user guide to EMS to help with your submission.
All organisations are welcome, events must be in line with the aims and objectives of Open Cambridge:
- To engage with the Cambridge community.
- To be inclusive, reach diverse audiences and aim to build lasting connections with new groups and organisations.
- To share the resources of the Collegiate University and City and County Council institutions.
Please adhere to the University of Cambridge editorial house style when entering content to the EMS.
Heritage Open Days has also produce a very helpful beginners guide developing digital events.
If you would like the OC team to arrange your bookings then please do the following: In the “Enquiries and Booking” tab selected “Required” in the Booking drop down menu and put our email (opencambridge@admin.cam.ac.uk) in the email address box. We’ll then set up an Eventbrite link and add this in.
Branding, photography, recording and copyright compliance
Please contact us for a copy of the Open Cambridge logo.
We encourage you to use the following consent form to obtain permission for video, recording and photography for participants and speakers: Filming/Photography/Artwork consent form
If you are filming, recording or taking photographs during your event please use perimeter signage to alert people who do not want to be featured in any way.
Please make sure that you credit the photographer, if appropriate.
Images for events
It is vital we have good images for all events to attached the public and make them want to attend. The size required for EMS is 590x290px.
If you are struggling for an image, there are a number of royalty-free image websites available to use: Unsplash, Pixabay, NASA, Cambridge Digital Library, Wiki Commons, Cambridge University Hospitals Stock Library, British Library, British Museum, Creative Commons.
Please include a description for accessibility reasons and ensure credit if appropriate and required.
If you do not have image resizing software, there a number of free sites that can do this for you: Wix, Adobe Express, PicResize, Simple Image Resizer
Risk assessments and Public Liability Insurance
We require risk assessments to be completed and submitted for all Festival events. Please feel free to use these templates in whichever way is helpful.
This online event risk assessment template has been developed by the Festival team for you to use. It is primarily suitable for video and broadcast-based events for the Festival. Here is our overall risk assessment template relating to live in-person events. You are strongly encouraged to update it so it is relevant to your own event(s). Please also ensure that all staff and volunteers, involved in running the event, receive a copy of your risk assessment, before the event begins, in order to familiarise themselves with arrangements.
Please ensure your organisational/department safety officer approves your risk assessment(s) before submitting to us. We cannot accept any risk assessments that have not been approved by your department’s or organisation’s safety officer.
If you are based in a college or if your organisation is external to the University, you will also need to supply a copy of your Public Liability Insurance (PLI) when submitting your risk assessment.
If you have any questions regarding insurance please get in touch with us as soon as possible opencambridge@admin.cam.ac.uk
The Festival team has also created a Code of Conduct which will apply to all Festival events and which is referenced in the risk assessment template provided above. Heritage Open Days have also produce a guide of handy hints to help minimise risks.
You can also use our filming preparation document if you wish, to help with live and/or pre-recorded events.
Room booking
It is your responsibility to find a suitable venue for your event this can be either online, internal to the University via the booker system below or an external venue.
Booker is a new room booking system that has been designed for the University. Many departments are already using the system to manage their own rooms, and administrators have been very positive about its user-friendly interface and features. It is available for any University department to adopt, free of charge, and with full training and support from the service team based at UIS (University Information Services).
https://www.em.admin.cam.ac.uk/what-we-do/estate-operations/facilities-services/room-bookings
All University staff are entitled to sign up for a Booker account, which enables them to search and discover a growing number of rooms. To request an account, please contact roombookingsystem@uis.cam.ac.uk.
You can use Accessable to check the accessibility of your venue.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Statement
Open Cambridge aims to be an inclusive and safe space for people of all backgrounds, races and ethnicities, ages, genders, and abilities.
We are committed to making Open Cambridge productive, supportive and inclusive and have prepared a Code of Conduct. This is to ensure that the Festival is a positive experience for everyone of all gender identities and expressions, sexual orientations, with any disability and of all races, ethnicities, nationalities, religions/beliefs and other protected identities based on the UK’s 2010 Equality Act. By attending Festival events, you are confirming that you will abide by this Code of Conduct in all interactions throughout the Festival.
Accessibility
Everyone is welcome at the Open Cambridge festival and we are committed to making our events as accessible as possible. Guidance for creating accessible online content for the Festival is available here.
The University uses its best efforts to ensure that all its web content is accessible and can be used by as many people as possible. If a member of the public is unable to access your Festival content, please review and, please be prepared to provide it in alternative formats where possible. You also should be aware that the University has under the Equality Act 2010 a legal duty to provide reasonable adjustments for disabled people, which includes making web-based content accessible for them.
If you are looking for access information for University Departments, Faculties, Research Centres, Institutes, Museums and other facilities you can use the search function within the main University guide provided by AccessAble.
Feedback
We hope you will plan to collect feedback on your activity. Asking for registration and 'booking' your event is a great way to gather feedback.
In order to assist with evaluating your event and the Festival as a whole, the team is currently investigating evaluation methods for events and will provide new evaluation tools for 2023. We will update coordinators when this is available.
Social Media
Our Instagram account is @CamUniFestivals
Our Twitter account is @OpenCambridgeUK
Please use our hashtag #OpenCambridge or tag us in your content, this helps us track and share your posts on social media.