By Louise Cusine
In July, Mare Nostrum Group attended the International Medieval Congress (IMC) in Leeds. IMC is one of the largest conferences of its kind, attracting over 2,700 delegates and hosting 26 exhibitors.
This conference was especially exciting for new members in our team, as it was the first conference for Amy Boyle (Marketing Assistant, STM), Louise Cusine (Marketing Assistant, Social Sciences) and Katie Siddall (Marketing Assistant, Higher Education). They joined Rachel Shand (Marketing Manager, University Presses) and enjoyed learning the ropes from Rachel who has a wealth of knowledge and experience of academic conferences. Day-to-day in the office, Amy, Louise and Katie’s roles across different marketing teams in the business involve a lot of conference preparation, so it was a great experience to attend a conference of this scale and to see it all in action. They all learnt about how to run a successful conference and enjoyed soaking up the medieval atmosphere.
The MNG stand showcased a range of titles covering all areas of medieval studies from a wide range of publishers. Many delegates attended sessions led by our publishers’ authors and were keen to get their hands on their books, including Paul Freedman’s The Splendor and Opulence of the Past (Cornell University Press), Jenny Nelville’s Truth is Trickiest and Charles West’s The Fall of the Carolingian Kingdom (both University of Toronto Press titles). We were also delighted to meet authors and editors at the stand, including Kelly Robert DeVries, author of Medieval Warfare, Justine L. Trombley, author of A Diabolical Voice and Frank Rexroth, author of Knowledge True and Useful.
Outside of the conference programme, it was great to see what delegates were getting up to during the conference, with some embroidering a Bayeux Tapestry dog. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at IMC and we are looking forward to next year’s conference!