The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations is the membership organisation for Scotland's charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. Charity registered in Scotland SC003558. Registered office Caledonian Exchange, 19A Canning Street, Edinburgh EH3 8EG.
Event host information
We're delighted that you'll be hosting an event with us at the Gathering 2026. We know that the lead up to a big event can be quite stressful, so we’d like to make your time as a Gathering host with us as comfortable and relaxed as possible. For a hassle-free event, please take some time to read the following information.
Deliveries, collections and logistics
To help reduce our environmental impact, we are working with Cameron Logistics as our preferred courier. Their highly experienced and friendly team will deal with the transportation needs of exhibitors, event hosts and SCVO. You can use this service to transport your banners, boxes and everything in between – watch this space for more information on costs and how to sign-up to the service coming soon.
Please note, this is a chargeable service, depending on weight, size and location. Cameron Logistics will pick up everything from your location and deliver it back to you after the Gathering takes place. Alternatively, you can deliver packages to their East Kilbride warehouse from Monday 27th January, and they will transfer it to your space in readiness for your staff arriving.
Cameron Logistics will be in touch with further information and to find out if you would like to use this service.
If you would prefer to use your own courier, you can arrange for deliveries to arrive at the EICC from 9.00am - 5.00pm on Monday 9th February. You should mark all deliveries in the following way:
Name of event: The Gathering
Date of event: [Tuesday 10th/Wednesday 11th February 2026]
Name of Contact on site: Sofia Fenoglio
Room name, event start time and date: [e.g. Ochil room, 9.30am, Tuesday 10th February]
Edinburgh International Conference Centre
The Exchange
Loading Bay Off West Approach Road
EDINBURGH
EH3 8EE
Please be aware that any deliveries arriving at the venue before Monday 9th February may be turned away, and the EICC or SCVO can’t be held responsible.
Pick-up
If you need anything picked up by Cameron Logistics after your event, please ensure all your materials are packed, clearly labelled with name and delivery address, and left in the loading bay accessed via the Cromdale Hall by 6pm on Wednesday 11th February. Cameron Logistics will collect your materials and deliver them back to you.
If not using Cameron Logistics as your courier, you should clear your materials from the EICC between 3.00pm and 6.00pm on Wednesday 11th February via the loading bay. Items can be left for up to one working day (i.e. until 3.00pm on Thursday 12th February). After this time, charges for storing items may be incurred up to £100 +VAT per day.
Unloading and parking
Event hosts who are bringing their own materials on Monday 9th February, you’ll be able to unload your materials at the loading bay door (for vehicle access) at the above address. Please ensure you use the loading bay to unload, and not the parking spaces in front of the pedestrian entrance to the EICC.
Below is a map of how to access the EICC’s loading bay:
Please note, there is no dedicated parking for the Gathering at the EICC. Once you have unloaded everything from your vehicle, it must be removed off site and parked in an appropriate place. We recommend that you plan where to park ahead of arriving at the venue. The EICC lists the following car parks in close walking distance:
- National Car Parks (NCP) in central Edinburgh
- Sheraton Hotel Car Park located 150 meters from the EICC, with limited accessible parking spaces
- Spaces near EICC available via yourparkingspace.co.uk
The EICC provides a discount code for on-the-day (not bookable in advance) parking at the NCP Car Park on Castle Terrace. You can access this by following the below steps:
- Download the free NCP App
- Register and add the SaverID: EICC4R to your park pass account before arriving at the car park and you must enter and exit by scanning your QR code to qualify for this discount.
Opening and closing times
Access for speakers and presenters begins at 7.30am on both days (Tuesday 10th and Wednesday 11th February). If you need to get in before this time, please contact the Gathering team.
Badges and registration
When you arrive at the Gathering on Tuesday or Wednesday, you will be given a badge for you to write your own name. Please make sure you wear it all the time as it will allow you access to all event rooms, the Exhibition and the free cloakroom.
Audio visual information
Technical support will be provided by the EICC.
All event hosts/speakers should email their presentations and any supporting documents to: [email protected] (cc: [email protected]) by Monday 2nd February.
The presentation file name and email subject line should be in the following format:
The Gathering: Time speaking | Name of speaker - Room - Day
e.g.: The Gathering: 11:15 John Smith - Ochil - Wed 11 Feb
We ask you to send your presentations in advance so the EICC's tech team has time to double-check the presentation formatting and send it to the relevant room; and also because some delegates request to be sent the presentations in advance for access reasons. Please help us by sending your presentations in a timely manner.
If your presentation uses online presentation software (e.g. Google Slides, Slido) or interactive elements such as polls (e.g. Menti), please make this clear in your email, so the EICC's tech team can discuss this with you if needs be.
All presentations should be in 16:9 ratio.
There will be a HDMI cable at each lectern just in case you need to connect a laptop to the screen. However, there is no need for you to bring your laptop/device with you on the day if you have sent your presentation in advance.
For any tech queries on the day, the EICC's tech team are located in the speaker preview room. Please see the below map. Staff at the registration desk will also be able to guide you.
Event hosts will have access to the following:
- Technical support from the room technician
- A slide advancer for the presentation which will have been uploaded at speaker preview. You will be able to see your presentation on a comfort monitor located beside the lectern
- Lectern microphones for audio
- Top table microphones for panel discussions
- Handheld microphone(s) for Q & A
- Either a large projection screen or a 80” LED screen to show presentations
There will also be free reliable Wi-Fi available throughout the EICC.
Please ensure that all speakers use the microphones throughout. If your event has a Q&A element, please ensure that everyone asking a question has access to the handheld microphone(s), in order that everything is audible for delegates who use a hearing aid.
If you require any additional audio-visual equipment or items such as flip charts, please contact us and we’ll be able to provide you with a quote to hire from the venue.
Presentations
Your organisation may have its own style guidelines for presentations, and you may be used to presenting to audiences. If not, here are some tips for creating and delivering an effective presentation:
- Keep the text on your slides simple and minimal, using bullet points or short sentences where possible. You want your audience to listen to you present your information, rather than read the screen
- Use clear graphics and charts/graphs to help convey your message
- Practice the presentation so that you can speak from bullet points. The text on your slides should be a cue for the presenter rather than the full message for the audience
- If using videos, please embed these into the presentation if possible, rather than clicking a web link. Please enable captions for any videos for accessibility reasons.
Room set up
Each suite is set up theatre style or round table style as per your booking and confirmation from us. Please note you won’t be able to rearrange the furniture yourself for health and safety reasons.
As your event suite will be used by other organisations on the same day, please arrive 15 minutes before your event starts. Please also leave the room 15 minutes after your event is scheduled to finish. Please note that this year, some of the event start/end times are staggered: make sure you know what time your event will start and end.
On the day registrations
A Gathering team member will be allocated to help you at the beginning of your event with set up and to register your delegates. They will also help to accommodate delegates' access requirements.
General information
Registration
Booking for the Gathering 2026 will open to SCVO members on 9 December, and to the general public on 6 January. It's important that all delegates book their place for the sessions they'd like to attend. Booking a session is the only way to guarantee entry, and events are often fully booked. We don't want people turning up on the day and being disappointed if they're turned away from an event.
We have let you know the number of speakers/table facilitators that your room can accommodate. If you plan to exceed this number, please contact us, and ensure that any additional speakers/table facilitators book onto the event. Health and safety regulations in the venue mean that we are unable to exceed the room's capacity, therefore if your additional speakers/table facilitators do not book onto your event, we cannot guarantee that there will be space for them in the room. If you have any questions, contact our team.
Correspondence
You’ll only receive Gathering-related correspondence from an official SCVO email address (@scvo.scot, or occasionally @scvo.org.uk). If you get any requests from any other email address about appearing in guides or anything else related to the event, just ignore them. The only exception is Cameron Logistics - please see the Deliveries, collections and logistics section for more info. If you get other requests for payments or credit card details, contact us.
Catering
There are plenty of places to buy food and drinks inside the EICC. Please note, these take card payment only. All our Gathering catering will be vegetarian, with vegan and non-gluten-containing options available. We will share each day's menu in advance with everyone attending.
Greener Gathering
SCVO is committed to making this year’s Gathering greener, so to help us reduce our carbon footprint, here are some things you might find useful and ways you can play your part too.
Accessibility and inclusion
We want the Gathering to be accessible, inclusive and enjoyable for everyone. We are applying a range of accessibility measures as standard - please take a moment to familiarise yourself with these, as they may relate to your event. We warmly invite you to tell us about your needs by emailing the Gathering team so we can address those too wherever possible.
We'll also have an online version of the Gathering called the Gathering Extra.
Our aim is to maximise accessibility, inclusion and delegate experience for both the in-person and online Gathering experience.
Thank you!
Finally, we would like to say a massive thank you to all our event hosts for taking part in the Gathering! We hope you enjoy your time with us.