Chris
It turned out, that our VC system is not  operational
due to the software/hardware upgrade which was not finished -- and we 
were not informed about this.
Sorry about this. Since that time we are requesting our system managers 
to provide us the live status of the system
to avoid such a confusions.
I was trying to call Sussex VC room (+44 1273877622)to let you know 
about this,
but nobody picked the phone. In case of such problems, you can call our 
(Southampton) VC room
using the number indicated at the NExT PhD School schedule webpage (bottom)
which is +44 2380599267.
Cheers,
           Sasha