LARIA is pleased to announce that it will be merging with BURISA (British Urban and Regional Information Systems Association) from January 2013. To find out more all LARIA members and BURISA subscribers are invited to a special half day conference at the Royal Statistical Society in London at 1pm on Friday 12 October 2012. The event will focus on the 2011 Census. Staff from the Office for National Statistics will make a series of presentations on outputs and analysis from the 2011 Census and there will be a look forward to what may replace the Census in future years. The conference will also provide an opportunity to look back over forty years of BURISA and to announce further details of the planned merger with LARIA. If you are interested in attending please email the business manager for more details and to register your place.
The merger is an exciting development for both BURISA and LARIA. Both associations were established in the early 1970s and have pursued many shared interests and objectives over the last forty years. Both have published regular newsletters and organised conferences and other events. BURISA has traditionally focused on rather more technical topics, including information systems, and originally aimed at a wider audience including health, central government, commercial and academic organisations as well as local government. However in recent years LARIA has also expanded its activities beyond local government and our recent change of name reflects this.
There will be a new BURISA Activity Group within LARIA and all existing BURISA subscribers will be invited to become part of this group. They will be responsible for deciding on the continuation of current BURISA activities. We would hope that existing LARIA members will also join this group. More details will be available soon and we hope you can join us on the 12th October to discuss this exciting development and help develop the future of both BURISA and LARIA.
For more details please visit the BURISA website.
Photo credit: Canary Wharf. LARIA photo.