Conference Cast Reloaded

For me conferences are the best part of the whole science thing. At a conference, there are no failed experiments, broken microscopes, overrun gels or dead cells there is just pure scientific findings and new knowledge presented by people who are generally enthusiastic about their research and are specialists in their area. In short, conferences celebrate all of the best parts of the inquisitiveness and curiosity of the well-honed scientific mind. They’re also a great chance to go someplace nice, eat way too much food, get drunk, dance and pass-out at 3 am in time to do it all again tomorrow.

Conferences are the places that new ideas are born. Only here do you discuss with other specialists from around the world about the fine details of your scientific interests and only here can you draw upon such an extensive pool of knowledge for input on your work and how it should progress. Sharing the experience of conferences is what Conference Cast is all about, it’s about putting you in the audience, it’s about meeting new people and sharing ideas. It is your place in the crowd.

I hope that the relaunched Conference Cast will provide a window into the conference-going experience with first-hand reports from delegates at conferences all over the world in the full range of scientific fields. Much more than that, I aim to develop Conference Cast into an all-round conference resource offering advice on how you can make the most of going to a conference, how to meet new people, present your data and get the best feedback possible from other attendees.

Most importantly, for Conference Cast to thrive we need your help. Conference Cast is nothing without writers and contributors. If you plan to go to a conference, have recently attended one or just have heard about a conference that you think we should cover or maybe you’re even involved in planning a conference, then please get in touch. If you have a lot of experience of conferences and think you’d like to contribute occasionally by offering advice we’d love to hear from you. Finally, so that Conference Cast can be truly global and represent all sciences, we’d like you to get involved in helping to promote Conference Cast in your geographical or scientific area by telling friends, relations and colleagues about us.

Simply put, if you’d like to get involved then let us know by e-mailing ret.mutant@gmail.com or tweeting @clearsci. I look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy the blog.

We've got a bunch of posts coming up in the next week to give you a taste of things to come from the new Conference Cast so keep checking back.

(Image from Keppet via Flickr)