This July, as the final delegates headed home from Ireland and the conference badges are packed away, many assume the conference team takes a well-earned break. In reality, they’re already working on the next one.

Within days of the end of this year’s conference in Dublin, members of the NomadIT team were at the University of Sussex, continuing preparations for the 2027 Development Studies Association conference, which will be co-hosted by the Institute of Development Studies. 

Over the coming year, we’ll take you behind the scenes and share what actually goes into organising our conference.

Hosting a DSA conference isn’t a matter of booking lecture theatres (we wish!). Several years before a conference takes place, a call for proposals is made, and universities submit proposals to host it. Those proposals are discussed with NomadIT and the DSA Council, considering everything from campus layout, physical accessibility, accommodation, transport links, sustainability, costs, and how well the venue can support an international community and an online experience. Once the above is taken into account, the most affordable option is selected as host. 

One of the misconceptions about university based conferences is that universities can provide rooms for free because the event is academic. However, university conference venues operate as a professional conferencing and events services, with their own pricing structures, staffing costs and commercial targets. Catering, lecture theatres, AV support, cleaning, security and accommodation are all managed as chargeable services.

A conference for several hundred delegates requires dedicated event support staff, rooms that can change configuration, specialist AV support, catering, signage, registration, accessibility planning and much more.

NomadIT works with host universities to achieve the best possible value, balancing delegate experience with affordability. Every decision involves trade-offs, and DSA wants to keep registration fees as accessible as possible, aiming to cover the costs but not to make a profit. 

One advantage of working with NomadIT is that they don’t organise just our conference each year. They work with academic societies across many disciplines, giving them extensive experience of what works well and what does not. If you’re in anthropology, or political ecology you might have been at the EASA or Pollen conferences they also run.  That collective knowledge also means they can use past experiences to get favourable rates, and that we never start from scratch, but benefit from their previous years of accumulated expertise.

One of the DSA’s priorities is ensuring the conference remains genuinely accessible within the realities of the cost limitations of running an event. 

The conference’s Scientific Committee explores funding opportunities, considers how financial support can be directed towards colleagues from the global South, and works to reduce barriers wherever possible for ECRs, precarious academics and those who cannot access other funds to attend. You can read more about the support from 2025, from Irish Aid and SPIRE. Last year we gave information on how we fund and this year we want to share more information about different funding sources in advance of our own funding call. 

Since being driven online during the pandemic we’re proud that the conference continues to be hybrid and accessible for those who cannot travel, for health, carer, financial, visas or other reasons. Every hybrid session requires technical support, streaming infrastructure and coordination between speakers in the room and participants joining online. We have a team of local volunteers at each conference who help make this happen. 

For those who do travel, NomadIT has built strong working relationships and considerable experience in managing visa processes with the UK government to help ensure applications are handled professionally and efficiently as much as they have control over. 

Can we make equality and accessibility at the DSA conference a community effort? 

If you’ve attended before, you already know things that can make a real difference to someone coming for the first time such as funding opportunities, having experience of the visa process, or simply knowing how to put together a strong panel or paper proposal. Sharing that knowledge helps make the conference more accessible to others.

If you have attended DSA or have been funded by the DSA to attend you might be able to demonstrate the benefit of attending to other funders, meaning DSA’s limited funds can be directed towards colleagues who have not had the experience. 

We welcome practical ideas for improving equality and accessibility that recognise practical realities – we are a UK based charity with a specific mandate in the UK and unfortunately we will never be able to fund everyone that wishes to attend. 

Finally, one of the simplest ways you can help is by planning ahead. Many opportunities, from panel submissions to funding applications, depend on meeting deadlines. Put the key dates in your diary now, share them with colleagues and students, and encourage someone who hasn’t attended before to get involved. We hope to see you at DSA2027!