The Second World Conference on ACT, RFT, and Contextual Behavioural Science

This five-day conference (with two days of pre-conference intensive workshops) will provide a unique opportunity to learn about cutting-edge advances in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Relational Frame Theory (RFT), in addition to other third generation approaches in the behavioral and cognitive therapies. There will be a comprehensive scientific programme in these areas of contextual behavioural science, examining philosophical, theoretical, basic and applied issues. Students, practitioners, researchers, and policy makers will benefit from this conference and find it an excellent opportunity to learn from the very top people involved in the development and advancement of ACT, RFT, and contextual behavioral approaches.

The conference will have 9-11 tracks simultaneously for all five days. There will be approximately 30 invited addresses from internationally known clinical and research leaders. Some will be from outside the ACT / RFT community per se, such as Mark Williams, Lars-Goran Ost, Andy Christensen, and Adrian Wells, among others. Many of the leaders of the ACT / RFT community will also be giving invited addresses.

There will be nearly 100 symposia, panels, case conferences, and discussions on topics as wide ranging as ACT / RFT work itself, including by not limited to:

In addition to a full, multi-track scientific and clinical programme, a wide variety of half-day workshops will be presented at the conference by leading researchers and practitioners. These workshops are FREE to conference attendees, no additional sign up required. These workshops will be designed to help develop the practice and skills of novice, intermediate, and advanced clinical practitioners, educators, prevention specialists, and even basic scientists. Most of the workshops will focus on ACT, but a wide range of topics will be addressed, including:

Free Workshop Topics

Venue: Institute of Education, University of London
The Institute is located in the grand, eighteenth-century Bloomsbury neighbourhood of central London, within close walking distance to museums, galleries, theatres, shops, parks, and a wide-array of famous, second-hand bookshops. The nearby University of London Student Union offers state-of-the-art fitness facilities, including a large swimming pool.

This conference is not related to the World Science Fiction Convention http://www.worldcon.org. "Worldcon" is a registered service mark of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society.

Select a link below (or in the menu on the top left of your screen) for further conference information.

Accommodation

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Conference delegates must arrange their own accommodation. There is a large selection of hotels in the central London neighbourhood of Bloomsbury, where the conference venue is located. Here, we are recommending a number of hotels, bed and breakfasts, university halls of residence (or dorms), and youth hostels.

Important Note: July is one of London’s busiest tourist and business periods. It is important, therefore, that you book your accommodation as early as possible. This is particularly important for people who wish to stay in university halls, as these are often booked up early.

Conference Hotel

The conference hotel is the Royal National on Bedford Way. It is located directly opposite the Institute of Education, which is the conference venue. All rooms are en suite with satellite TV, radio and tea/coffee making facilities. Computer points and hairdryers are available on request. Facilities include a Chinese restaurant, coffee shop, traditional pub, gift shops, internet kiosks and a bureau de change. There is also an underground (pay) car park.

Room rates (inclusive of VAT):

Click here for a currency converter.

Those delegates who identify themselves as attending the Second World Conference on ACT, RFT, and Contextual Behavioural Science at the time of booking and who stay for 7 consecutive nights will pay for only six. In order to avail yourselves of this special conference offer, delegates must prepay in full, by credit card, at the time of booking. This booking cannot then be amended or cancelled. You can book rooms at the Royal National via the following:

Online: info@imperialhotels.co.uk
Phone: +44 (0)20 7278 7871
Fax: +44 (0)20 7837 4653

Hotels and B&B’s from £36 - £100

(All within a 10 minute walk from the conference venue)

Hotels from £100+ per night

(All within a 10 minute walk from the conference venue)

Student Halls of Residence

There are a large number of university and college halls (or dorms) in central London. There are two, in particular, that we would recommend most highly, owing to their location to the conference venue in Bloomsbury. They are, in rank order:

Information and booking details for these two halls can be accessed from the following webpage: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/residences/

We cannot recommend more strongly the need to book halls of residence at your earliest possible convenience.

Additional Student Halls of Residence

Individual or group bookings of 20 people or more can be made at many of the following halls. They are all very central and within a short walking distance or tube journey of the Institute of Education, the conference venue.

It is recommended that you telephone or email residences that you are interested in to check availability and make a provisional booking, and to then print off a booking form and send it in with your deposit.

NB: Many more London Universities provide low budget summer accommodation for students but these may not be as central as the universities specified above. To view these options please click the following link.

Youth Hostels (£11.50 - £17 depending on room type)

There are many independent youth hostels in central London and these generally have to be accessed through booking websites such as:

Some very central hostels that come highly recommended are The Camden Inn and The Generator; others can be found on the above websites. If price is the main concern then these will undoubtedly be your cheapest bet, but be aware that if you book into these hostels, you will generally be booking a bed in a shared dormitory.

London Travel Tips

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Arriving at London's Heathrow Airport

Unless you are being met by someone with a car, it is advisable to travel to the conference hotel/venue via the London Underground (Tube) or the Heathrow Express. The Tube involves a slightly longer journey, but it is less expensive than the Heathrow Express option.

A Taxi from Heathrow is not advisable as it will be a long and expensive journey (approximately £50).

There are bus services into London from Heathrow Airport, but they involve a long journey, and they do not deposit you anywhere near the conference venue/hotel, and so this option will require an additional Tube journey.

London Underground (or Tube)

There are 4 terminals at Heathrow. Unfortunately, there will be no Tube service from Terminal 4 during the conference, owing to engineering works. Terminals 1, 2 and 3 will continue to be served by the Tube’s Piccadilly Line, which will take you very close to the conference venue/hotel. If you arrive at Terminal 4, and wish to take the Tube, you are strongly advised to take the Heathrow Express (for free) to the next stop, which is ‘Terminals 1, 2, and 3’. Once there, you can transfer onto the Piccadilly Line (after buying a ticket).

(From Terminal 4, you can also take a free bus to Hatton Cross Tube station and join the Piccadilly Line there, but this inconvenient route is not advisable.)

The advantage of taking the Tube from Heathrow is that the Piccadilly Line runs direct to Russell Square Tube station, which is a short walk from the conference venue/hotel. The disadvantage is that the Tube journey is approximately 1 hour, but it is the cheapest and most direct option from Heathrow.

Here's a great map of the conference & hotel area (including the location of the Russel Square Tube station): Institute of Education

Heathrow Express

The Heathrow Express will get you into Central London’s Paddington Station in 15 minutes (one way, £15; return/round trip, £23). From Paddington, the conference venue is a mere 10 minute taxi ride away (which costs approximately £10 - £15, depending upon traffic). From Paddington, you could also take a Tube to Euston Square, but this is not advised as you would then have a 10 – 15 minute walk from the Tube station to the conference venue/hotel.) If you are willing to pay approximately £30 to get to the hotel/venue, then this is the most pleasant, and quickest, way to do so.

Arriving at London's Gatwick Airport

Unless you are being met by someone with a car, a train from Gatwick Airport into London is the only advisable mode of transport. Any type of taxi is prohibitively expensive from Gatwick, and the journey time to the conference venue/hotel will be approximately 1.5 hours (if the traffic is not bad, which it typically is). Accordingly, the bus service into London is slow, yet cheap, but it is not especially pleasant and you will not end up anywhere that is convenient to the conference’s location. Go train.

Trains to London King’s Cross from Gatwick airport

THIS IS THE ADVISABLE TRAIN OPTION FROM GATWICK, if you are staying in accommodation that is recommended on this website (or anywhere near the conference venue).

From Gatwick Airport there are frequent trains direct to King’s Cross station, which is well situated for the conference and associated hotels. The conference hotel is a longish walk from King’s Cross station, a very short taxi ride, or one stop (to Russell Square station) on the Tube.

Trains to London Victoria Station (including the Gatwick Express)

THIS OPTION IS NOT RECOMMENDED if you are staying at the conference hotel or are going directly to the conference venue. If you are staying in West London (which is not near the conference), then this is the fastest way to get into London.

Arriving at London's Stanstead Airport

The ONLY way that you will want to travel from Stanstead to London is via train. The Stanstead Express train service takes you into London’s Liverpool Street Station. Once there, people can take either a taxi or the Tube to the conference venue/hotel. The nearest Tube station to the conference venue/hotel is Russell Square.

Arriving at London's Luton Airport

The ONLY way that you will want to travel from Luton to London is via train. From Luton, there are trains that go to different London railway stations. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, you will only want to take a train to London King’s Cross station which is well situated for the conference and associated hotels. The conference hotel is a longish walk from King’s Cross station, a very short taxi ride, or one stop (to Russell Square station) on the London Underground (i.e., Tube).

Please email Tony Balazs (tony@balazs.co.uk) if you require further travel advice.

Program

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View/download the final WorldCon2 Program (PDF file, 6.7MB)


Registration

Below you will find registration information for World Conference II. To add a conference or pre-conference workshop registration to your shopping cart, simply click on its name. After adding the registration(s) to your shopping cart, you will need to checkout to pay the registration fees and officially register for the conference and/or workshop. If you accidentally add two registrations (etc.) you can go to your cart and remove the items you don't want. By the way, the credit card processing does go through PayPal's secure servers but as you check out you are offered the chance just to pay by credit card without getting a PayPal membership, so if you don't like that idea there is an alternative shown on later screens.
Important Note: If you do not receive an email receipt from PayPal after making your purchase (give it some time, as the system may not send it immediately), it means that your payment was not processed and you have not been registered for the conference! You may also view your Order History at any time to check the status of any orders you have placed on this site.
If you do not wish or are otherwise unable to pay your registration fee(s) online, please contact Emily Neilan (doact"@"nvbell.net) at Context Press to make alternate arrangements (fax, mail, pay by check, etc.).

Conference Registration

There are two different types of conference registration available: full registration and single-day registration. Full registration provides access to all five days of the conference (July 24-28), and single-day registration can be used to access an individual day (or several individual days) of the conference. The online REGISTRATION DEADLINE for the World Conference is July 18, 2006. On Monday morning, July 24, at 8:00/8:30am, registration materials will be available at the venue. You will need to be at: Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H OAL. If you don't see us in the foyer outside of Jeffrey Hall, just follow the signs.

Full Conference Registration

Full conference registration includes: Apply for ACBS membership now to get the discounted registration rate. The amount of the discount is greater than the price of membership! (learn more about why the registration fees are as they are)

Click on a full conference registration type below to add it to your shopping cart. Your ACBS membership status will be verified by conference staff before processing your registration. ONLINE REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED, YOU MUST NOW REGISTER ON SITE. Single-Day Conference Registration

Single-day conference registration includes: Click on a single-day registration type below to add it to your shopping cart. You may purchase registration for more than one day of the conference. There is no discount for ACBS members for single-day registrations.
Pre-Conference Weekend Workshops (July 22-23, 2006)

Pre-conference workshops will begin at 9:00AM 22nd July and will be conducted in a location near the conference hotel. Choices for the workshops will be granted on a first come, first served basis. It is important that you understand the experiential nature of these workshops. That is, these workshops teach ACT by creating an experience of what it is like to stand in the place that we ask ACT clients to stand in. These workshops are dominantly experiential, and they can be intense at times.

While it appears to be useful, we have no data saying that this kind of experiential training is necessary to learn ACT. No one should feel pressured to do them. Your privacy will be protected absolutely, but come ready for that kind of workshop. These workshops are designed for behavioural health providers and post-graduate (i.e., masters and doctoral) students in those areas. If you are in another category, contact the workshop leaders and we will see if it is possible to register you.

Deadline for registration FOR THESE PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS is 17th July 2006. NO ON-SITE REGISTRATION IS AVALIABLE FOR THESE PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS.

CEs will not be available for the Pre-Conference workshops. We tried to have them, but I'm afraid it didn't work out.

"Beginner" workshops are for those who have not done an experiential workshop before. That could include people who have been working with ACT and RFT concepts for some time.
"Advanced" workshops are for individuals who have already participated in an ACT experiential workshop ("advanced" does not refer to duration or extent of ACT experience).

Please note that these workshops are concurrent, and you may only register for ONE. Click on a workshop below to add it to your shopping cart.

  • If the workshop for which you registered is full, every attempt will be made to expand the offerings through additional trainers and sessions. In this event, we will contact you to offer you the choice of withdrawing your registration.
  • A $30 processing fee will be charged for registration refunds up to 23rd June 2006. After this date, refunds will be granted at the discretion of the organizers.
  • Enrollment in all workshops is limited due to the limitation of our venue to accommodate additional attendees.

Why So Expensive? What Your Registration Covers

We did a survey of the list serve members to arrive at the cost and set it below the
mean recommendation but still they might seem a little steep when it comes to actually
paying. It helps a bit to know what they cover and where the money goes.

The World Con II cost includes lunch and coffee all five days: that is a $150 cost to us.

We are not charging for workshops during the conference proper ... which is
unheard of and saves hundreds

The conference will have at least 8 tracks continuously for the entire 5 days

And if you an ACBS member you save more than your membership cost

The biggest expense is the venue. No one is presenting being paid except a
few of the non-ACT / RFT workshop leaders. We figure we break even at around 300
people.

So, yeah it is expensive, but it is way cheaper than most similar conferences when you factor
in the size, length, meals, sessions, speakers, and city.

Sponsors

WorldCon2 is possible due to the generosity of our sponsors


Corporate Sponsor


Individual Sponsors