About us

BCS Hertfordshire is the regional chapter of the British Computing Society (BCS). We serve the approximately 1400 members of the British Computer Society located in and around Hertfordshire, as well as parts of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and North London.

Our main responsibilities are to provide local representation for our membership within the BCS and its policy groups while promoting the mission and objectives of the society to our members and the wider public in our area.

Our main activities revolve around the annual programme, which commences in October each year. Our events season involves a mix of lectures, visits, hands-on activities and social events that are designed to support the networking and professional development of our members.

Most of our events are free, regardless of whether you are a member of the BCS or not. If you have an interest in IT, Computing or the discipline of Computer Science, we look forward to seeing you at our events.

Our History

The current committee of BCS Hertfordshire does not know the details of the history of the branch. If you know of any information that can help us piece our history together, please get in touch with us.

The Branch began as a sub-branch of the London Branch, and was originally named the Watford sub-branch. In April 1973, it moved location to Hemel Hempstead and was renamed the West Herts sub-branch. The speaker at the first meeting was Dr Tom Margerison, the well-known science writer and broadcaster.

Various venues were tried: Batchwood Hall, the Langley Hotel, and the Heath Park Hotel. The latter being the most popular, it was adopted for meetings for some time.

Full Branch status was approved in May 1974. During the 1980s, meetings were moved to the Aubrey Park Hotel, moving to the University of Hertfordshire in the 1990s, the Thistle Hotel, St Albans in the early 2000s and between Steria (later Sopra Steria) and the University of Hertfordshire from the 2010s to the current era. There have been many eminent speakers over the years including Sir Edwin Nixon, MD of IBM (UK) Limited, Michael Jackson, founder of Michael Jackson Systems Limited, Neville Lyons of J Lyons & Co., Professor Mark Maslin of University College London and multiple Presidents of the BCS.

We have documentary evidence of the operations of the BCS West Hertfordshire Branch operating in and around Hemel Hempstead as early as 1982. With the first known reference to the branch being referred to as BCS Hertfordshire appearing in a document from 1995, although the name was not formally changed to BCS Hertfordshire until the commencement of the 2003/2004 programme year.

Several of our legacy programmes can be downloaded on our Past Events page.

Last updated 1st October, 2024 at 1:58pm