Our public events explore current, controversial and challenging issues in our field. Most of the events take place in the evening, are free to attend, and are open to everyone.
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Annual Conference
Our Annual Conference is a one-day event, held in December each year, which explores issues surrounding assisted reproduction and genomics in greater depth. There is an attendance fee for the conference, with concessions offered to Friends of PET and to unwaged people (including students).
We also advertise other organisations' events. If you would like us to advertise your event, please contact us.
What others say about our events
In 2025-2026:
- 94% of people attending a PET event said they were better informed as a result of attending.
- 95% of people attending a PET event rated the events as excellent/good.
- 89% of people attending a PET event said the chance to voice their opinion was excellent/good.
PET events help you stay ahead of the game
We have been responsible for starting the public discussion of a wide range of contentious and complex issues at our events.
- Our 2025 Annual Conference, 'What Does Genomics Mean for Fertility Treatment?', was the first public discussion of using preimplantation genetic testing for polygenic traits (PGT-P) in the UK, leading to a debate in BioNews between Dr Cristina Hickman and the HFEA.
- Our 2024 Annual Conference, '40 Years after the Warnock Report: What Is the Embryo's Special Status?', the HFEA made public their recommendation that the law should be changed to extend the 14-day limit on human embryo research.
- Our 2016 Annual Conference, 'Rethinking the Ethics of Embryo Research: Genome Editing, 14 Days and Beyond', was the first conference to include the general public which explored editing the genomes of human embryos and extending the 14-day limit on human embryo research.
- Our 2012 event 'Freeing Us from Our Cells: Avoiding Inherited Mitochondrial Disease' was the first public event to explore mitochondrial donation, three years before the UK became the first country in the world to legislate for mitochondrial donation.
- Our 2009 Annual Conference, 'Does Genetics Matter? Help, Hype and the New Horizon of Epigenetics', was the first conference open to the public that explored epigenetics.
- Our 2008 event 'Artificial Gametes: The What, Why and How of Creating Sperm and Eggs in the Laboratory' was the first public event to explore the technology now known as in vitro gametogenesis (IVG).
