Book now

CIEP Conference 2025

We’ve put together a packed programme of speakers, workshops and networking.

Whether you join us in person or online, it’s a fantastic opportunity to focus on your professional development, explore fresh ideas, and connect with colleagues and friends across the profession.

The programme includes both plenary and breakout sessions, as well as opportunities to network with fellow conference delegates or to just take a few quiet moments to yourself to reflect and recharge.   

You’ll choose which of the breakout sessions to attend, depending on which content is most relevant to you. Recordings of all the sessions that took place on the days you paid to attend will be made available to you after the conference has ended.  

The programme below is for delegates attending in person. The online programme will be published separately. It will include the same plenary and breakout sessions, but some of the timings for networking may be different. 

All times listed in the programme are BST.
 

Day 1
Saturday 20 September
11.30am – 1pm
Registration opens

Registration opens (lunch provided from midday)

1pm – 1.15pm
Welcome from the CIEP chair

Welcome from the CIEP chair Louise Harnby

1.15pm – 2.15pm
Whitcombe lecture

Whitcombe lecture: A virtual Q&A with Susie Dent

2.15pm – 3.15pm
Davina Bhanabhai: Authenticity in Publishing: A Crucial Service to Improve Content

Session 1 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

Dr Sara Kitaoji: Editing as a Vocation or Ikigai: Reclaiming Our Humanity in the Age of AI

Session 1 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

Vicky Drew: The importance of terminology in NATO

Session 1 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

3.15pm – 3.45pm
Break

Break and refreshments

3.45pm – 5.45pm
Rebel with a Clause film screening and Q&A with Ellen Jovin and Brandt Johnson

Rebel with a Clause film screening and Q&A with Ellen Jovin and Brandt Johnson

5.45pm – 7.15pm
Connect, explore or relax

Free time

6.45pm – 7.15pm
First timers’ drinks

First timers’ welcome drinks

7.15pm – 10pm
Dinner and social activities

Dinner and social activities

Day 2
Sunday 21 September
7am – 9am
Breakfast

Breakfast in the main restaurant

8.30am – 9am
Registration for day delegates

Registration opens for day delegates

9am – 10am
Louise Harnby: 6 lyrical tools for fiction line editors

Session 2 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

Lisa de Caux: Style sheet with editorial report

Session 2 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

Sarah Sodhi: Setting new standards for PDF markup – but what should they be? 

Session 2 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

10am – 11am
Special interest networking

Connect with colleagues working in similar fields

11am – 11.30am
Break

Break and refreshments

11.30am – 12.30pm
Abi Saffrey: Figure it out: take charge of figures, tables and captions

Session 3 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

Margaret Hunter: Cleaning up a messy Word document

Session 3 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

Louisa Ellins: Why bother proofreading magazines?

Session 3 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

12.30pm – 1.30pm
Lunch

Lunch in the main restaurant

1.30pm – 2.30pm
Debbie Emmitt: I, Human. Using your website to showcase the value of a human editor

Session 4 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

Rui Queirós de Faria: Developmental Editing and AI. Are we asking the right questions?

Session 4 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

Session to be confirmed

Session 4 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

2.30pm – 3pm
Break

Break and refreshments

3pm – 4pm
Magda Wojcik: Human in the loop: The evolving role of editors in the age of AI

Session 5 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

Claire Beveridge: Articulating your value in the elevator

Session 5 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

3pm – 5pm
Sarah Calfee, Andrew Hodges, Sophie Playle, Aimee Walker: Developmental Fiction Editing Roundtable: Strategies in a Changing Landscape

Session 5 – breakout seminars (running concurrently). Please note this session is for two hours.

4pm – 4.15pm
Break

Break and refreshments

4.15pm – 5.45pm
Social and wellbeing activities

Social and wellbeing activities

5.45pm – 6.30pm
Meet the Council and office team

Meet the Council and office team 

6.30pm – 7.15pm
Connect, explore or relax

Free time

7.15pm – 10pm
Dinner and quiz

Dinner and a fun quiz

Day 3
Monday 22 September
7am – 9am
Breakfast

Breakfast in the main restaurant

8.45am – 9.15am
Registration for day delegates

Registration opens for day delegates

9.15am – 10.15am
Manda Waller: An introduction to marketing your editing services to indie fiction authors

Session 6 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

Marieke Krijnen: Beyond grammar and spelling: Ten nonfiction copyediting interventions that improve clarity and readability

Session 6 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

Paula Clarke Bain: An extra trick up your sleeve: adding book indexing to your editorial skills portfolio

Session 6 – breakout seminars (running concurrently)

10.15am – 10.45am
Break

Break and refreshments

10.45am – 11.45am
Closing panel

Closing panel - details to be confirmed

11.45am – 12pm
CIEP chair’s closing words and raffle

CIEP chair’s closing words and raffle (lunch will be available after the session closes)