The Society of Indexers 2025 conference was an in-person residential conference in the purpose-built Edgbaston Park Hotel and Conference Centre at the University of Birmingham, in a leafy, semi-suburban setting at the edge of the university campus. The well-appointed building was completed in 2018 and has a modern and contemporary feel, with excellent facilities and plenty of space for networking during breaks. Accommodation was either in the four-star Edgbaston Park Hotel itself, or the more modest three-star Peter Scott house, located about 200 metres across the road.
The conference theme,‘The Heart and Mind of Indexing’, was inspired by the event being located in Birmingham within the Heart of England geographical area, and the ongoing importance of human empathy and real intelligence in book indexing.
Conference sessions were held in the Writers’ Suite – a flexible space with a light and airy feel. Comprising three rooms named after writers with connections to the University of Birmingham (poet Louis MacNeice, author David Lodge and Victorian novelist Marie Corelli), it could be reconfigured for both plenary and breakout sessions. Dinner was served in the adjacent Pevsner Room, named after Sir Nikolaus Pevsner – a University of Birmingham research fellow and the author of the ground-breaking series of architectural guides to the UK.
The programme spanned three days, comprising plenary (full conference) presentations and smaller breakout sessions. It aimed to engage indexers at all stages in their careers, from students and newly qualified to those with many years of experience, and plenty of time was built in for the networking that is such a vital part of an in-person conference. The programme can be viewed here, with more detailed information about individual sessions here.
