INTERNATIONAL BLAISE USER GROUP an independent organization open to all Blaise users from around the world

IBUC 2025 21st International Blaise Users Conference

Conference Program

Monday, April 7: IBUC – Pre-Conference Training

Time

Activity

9:00 – 16:30

Preconference training (Details)

18:00 – 20:00

IBUC 2025 Welcome Reception at Mainport Hotel “Panorama Room”

Tuesday, April 8: IBUC – Day 1

Time

Activity

8:15 – 8:55

Registration and Coffee

8:55 – 9:00

Logistics briefing

9:00 – 10:00

Plenary Session

·         Opening remarks by IBUC Chair Gina Cheung (3 minutes)

·         Opening speech by Deputy Director-General of Statistics Netherlands Joost Huurman (10 minutes)

·         The keynote by Chief Economist of Statistics Netherlands Peter Hein van Mulligen (40 minutes)

·         Blaise and Blaise 5 at Statistics Netherlands by Harry Wijnhoven, Member of the Board of Directors and CEO Blaise, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) (10 minutes)

10:00 – 10:30

Break

10:30 – 12:00

Presentation Session 1 (90 minutes)

Session Chair: Roger Linssen

1. Continuing the Blaise 5 Journey: Mixed modes and Blaise 5 integrated extensions (NatCen)

2. Transitioning the Large, Complex Family Resources Survey to Blaise 5 (ONS)

3. Experiences with Multi-Topic Implementation at Statistics Norway (Statistics Norway)

4. Blaise Update from Statistics Denmark - or what are we playing around with at the moment (Statistics Denmark )

12:00 – 13:30

Lunch

13:30 – 15:00

Presentation Session 2 (90 minutes)

Session Chair: Angela Belo

5. Migration of Social Surveys onto Blaise 5 Update (ONS)

6. Blaise 5 improvements for large CAPI surveys (Westat)

7. Transition from Blaise4 CATI to Blaise5 CATI at Statistics Finland (Statistics Finland)

8. Developing National Crime Surveys on Blaise 5 (ONS)

15:00 – 15:30

Break

15:30 – 17:00

Presentation Session 3 (90 minutes)

Session Chair: Marcel van der Steen

9. Multilingual Survey Development in Blaise: Streamlining Localization (UMSRC)

10. Harmonized design for different devices (Statistics Netherlands)

11 The Framework of Survey Behavior: An Extension of the Framework for Web Survey Participation (Statistics Netherlands)

12. Survey design features that matter: A meta-analysis using official statistics surveys of the Netherlands (Statistics Netherlands)

Wednesday, April 9: IBUC – Day 2

Time

Activity

8:15 – 8:55

Registration and Coffee

8:55 – 9:00

Logistics briefing

9:00 – 10:30

Panel Session  - (90 minutes) – a celebration of Blaise 40 years

·         Special Guests to reflect on Blaise's journey and accomplishments over these past four decades!

10:30 – 11:00

Break

11:00 – 12:00

Special Session  (60 minutes)

·         Multi Mode Case Management (MMCM) Part 1 - (Gina Cheung)

This session will discuss three example projects designed for MMCM and the MMCM dashboard features.  We will give a short demo of one of those projects.

12:00 – 13:30

Lunch

13:30 – 14:30

Special Session  (60 minutes)

·         Multi Mode Case Management (MMCM) Part 2 (Lon Hofman)

This session will discuss the details of the implementation of those three example projects.

14:30 – 15:00

Break

15:00 – 17:00

Blaise Team Presents

17:30 – 21:00

Conference Excursion and Dinner at Spido Rotterdam (departure from the hotel)

Thursday, April 10: IBUC – Day 3

Time

Activity

8:30 – 9:00

Coffee and Logistics briefing

9:00 – 10:30

Presentation Session 4 (90 minutes)

Session Chair: Mark Pierzchala

13. Challenges and opportunities of upgrading surveys to Blaise 5 (ONS)

14. Using Accordion Templates for Expandable Rosters (UMSRC)

15. Implementation of Multimode-CMA at the Survey Department of Statistics Denmark (Statistics Denmark)

16. Automated Testing Tools for Blaise 5 (Westat)

10:30 – 11:00

Break

11:00 – 12:30

Presentation Session 5 (90 minutes)

Session Chair: Tim Carati

17. Some different uses of expressions with Blaise 5 resource databases (Westat)

18. Optimizing Blaise Servers for High-Concurrency Survey Environments (UMSRC)

19. Language independence using the Databridge sample (Statistics Netherlands)

20. Producing 508 and WCAG2.0 Accessible Instruments in Blaise 5: Challenges, Tools, Techniques and Best Practices (Westat)

12:30 – 14:00

Lunch

14:00 – 15:30

·         “Tony” Award for IBUC Papers and Presentations

·         2026 IBUC announcement

·         International Blaise Users Group Meeting Closing

 

Preconference Training Program
Room 1 Room 2
9:00am 10:30am Multimode Case Management - part 1 Q&A - part 1
10:45am 12:15pm Multimode Case Management - part 2 Q&A - part 2
1:15pm 2:00pm Kami - the fashionable way to style your meta-data output Data improvements
2:00pm 2:45pm Dashboard Building an accessible survey
3:00pm 3:45pm Fancy MVC applications: Life History Calendar Testing web surveys with BrowserStack
3:45pm 4:30pm Fancy MVC applications: Integrating AI in Blaise Test Suite feedback session
  Basic
  Medium
  Advanced
Multimode Case Management (level: medium)
In this session we will show the ins and outs of the Multimode Case Management system, the major feature of Blaise 5.15
Kami - the fashionable way to style your meta-data output (level: medium)
This session focuses on the Kami tool that can be used to output meta-data to other systems
Dashboard (level: basic)
In this session we will show the features of the new Blaise Dashboard
Fancy MVC applications: Life History Calendar (level: advanced)
This session shows how to build a custom event live history calendar
Fancy MVC applications: Integrating AI in Blaise (level: advanced)
In this session we will show how to integrate third-party services into a Blaise survey, specifically an AI service
Q&A (level: medium)
In this session, the Blaise team will try to answer any questions you have about Blaise
Data improvements (level: medium)
This session shows the improvements on how Blaise handles data, among others the Tagging functionality
Building an accessible survey (level: basic)
In this session we will show you how to build an accessible Blaise survey
Testing web surveys with BrowserStack (level: basic)
This session shows the benefits of the BrowserStack platform, which you can use to test surveys
TestSuite feedback session (level: medium)
In this session we will show the features of the Test Suite, and ask for your feedback on next steps