It would have been helpful to have more details here, such as the price, the times and where the Studio is located!  Just giving an email address to book is somewhat daunting without these details.

Thanks for your comment, point taken.
The day will start with registration from 9am and will close 4.30pm. Places are free, but limited to 100.
The Studio is on Cannon St, close to New St station. You can find directions on the Studio's website

Yet again, some fantastic event planning on behalf of the CRC! A national conference widely promoted to all and sundry as open to all those with an interest in rural research and analysis, but limited to one hundred places! Can someone please explain why?! If that is not bad enough, the event starts at 9-9.30am which makes it almost impossible for anyone more than a couple of hours away to get to without undertaking an arduous journey or incurring some huge expense. Perhaps the organisers should focus more on the practicalities of running events in a way which benefits those working on rural issues and less on attempting to obtain PR coverage by signing up celebrities to chair things!

Thanks for your post. I'll ask a member of the State of the Countryside team to respond to your comments.

Nicola Lloyd, our Executive Director leading on strategic analysis and research work has given me this response:

Thank you for your comments on our forthcoming State of the Countryside conference. This is the first time that we are holding this event so we are testing out the format and any future events will be designed taking into account the views of those who attend and any other feedback that we receive.

In response to your request for an explanation of some of the arrangements for the event, we are keen to involve a wide range of interests about the evidence that we use in the main report. This is why we have advertised it widely and not made a charge for the event. However, in the current climate we have to bear in mind the cost of the event, which is why it’s limited to 100 places (also the legal limit for the venue that we have chosen) and it is a one day event. Offering places to all on a first come, first served basis seems the fairest way to make the opportunity available to those who will be interested. There are still places available if you wish to register.

On the timing for the day, the first session begins at 10 a.m. (registration from 9 a.m.), it could not be much later to cover the programme and we have chosen Birmingham as a place that many people can get to on the day, rather than London. The venue is just 5 minutes away from the main line station and fully accessible. Finally, on the issue of the ‘celebrity’ chair, it is the Commission’s role to raise the profile of rural issues and to encourage interest from outside the regular circle of rural commentators. One good way to do this nowadays is to include a well-known name in the programme of an event and in this case we can also be sure that an experienced broadcaster and master of panel discussions will provide us with the highest quality closing discussion for the conference.