I Don't Speak Geek

As someone who's never been all that comfortable with schmoozing and self-promotion, I've always had a hate-hate relationship with conferences. The biggest perk is definitely getting to visit locations you might not otherwise get to see, ie. the gorgeous San Diego - site of this year's Experimental Biology meeting. I have a lot of affection for this city, which is on the U.S. west coast, just a little south of Los Angeles, and a short trip away from the infamous Tijuana, just over the Mexican border. San Diego was the first city I stayed in when I visited the States for the first time in 2005, and to say that it's picturesque and pretty is an understatement. With its Mexican-influenced buildings, and the beautiful vivid golds, reds, greens and blues, together with its cleanliness, it's the sort of place that you arrive in, and even after a crappy flight, you still feel strangely energetic. Although the downtown area has its fair share of panhandlers and homeless, it's still one of my favourite cities anywhere.














Other perks include seeing big names in your field present their work, and finally being able to put a face to a well-known brain. It's also good fun to check out the program prior, and make a point of going to see some presentations on topics that interest you, but that you don't necessarily work on, ie. the desert squirrel and its amazing tail that assists it in tolerating really high temperatures, or the study that looked at different running wheels for mice. Often, meetings like this are so big that they become pretty overwhelming, no matter how thoroughly you study the program, and how determined you are to see absolutely everything of interest to you. Inevitably, sessions clash, and worse still, some presentations whose abstract might have looked great on paper, fizzle.

Nevertheless, the most satisfying thing about this meeting came out of something I didn't expect to matter so much. Catching up with folks from my old lab in Melbourne was great. It left me feeling very nostalgic and more homesick than I've ever felt since I moved here. Being able to pick up where we left off made me grateful for the good start I'd been given in such a good working environment - even though I didn't always see it that way at the time. Contrary to what I'd previously thought, there's a certain dynamic that can't be replaced, as much as I appreciate my workmates here.

That said, the worst thing about conferences is definitely eating out virtually every night, which quickly loses its novelty. The overindulging, together with the late nights and early starts, really takes the wind out of your sails. As for me, I don't want to see another burrito or margarita for quite a while.