RSSeNEWS to be determined...

Registration has now opened for the 2010 SUF conference (27 October 2010, Savoy Place, London) examining the recession from the point of view of statistics users, exploring the economic and social implications and consequences. The conference will also consider what may happen as we move through to the recovery.

Taking place a week after the government is due to announce the detail of the spending cuts in the comprehensive spending review, the conference will probe some fundamental issues relating to both the recession and the recovery, considering the latest information available.

New for this year's conference, delegates will be able to discuss the issues up to, during and after the conference using the SUFeNews online discussion forum.

Confirmed keynote speakers are:

• Charlie Bean, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England

• Ian Diamond, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen

• Robert Chote, Director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies

• Stephen Penneck, Director General of the Office for National Statistics

Proposals sought for parallel sessions

The morning plenary sessions will hear from our keynote speakers who will review and comment on these issues in plenary sessions. In two parallel sessions, conference delegates will then be able to explore them further from either an economic or social perspective respectively.

Conference will then break into two parallel streams exploring the issues in greater detail, one looking at the economic impact, and the other looking at the social impact.

There will be two sessions within each stream, and these are open to proposals from user groups. Submitted abstracts should cover the proposed content of the session and how it will be run, and also state to which stream (economic or social) it is submitted.

Questions that these sessions might cover include:

• Is the current statistics base sufficient to measure the impact and monitor the recovery?
• Outlining some possible consequences from the recession and their implications for the recovery
• What, if any, lessons can we learn from previous recessions, or from international experiences, can we draw on during the recovery?
• Are there particular groups of society that have been, or will be, more affected by the recession?

Submissions for sessions should be sent to suf@rss.org.uk by close of business on Friday 10 September. Where possible, sessions should look to draw on views from the relevant producers of official statistics so that each session represents real user-producer engagement.