It's that most wonderful time of the year again: the big protist conference season. Every year around this time, one or more of the protist societies hold meetings full of people who might actually understand and care about some of your research, minutiae or otherwise. Actually, that last part is true of just about every scientific conference ever. This particular meeting is a Congress of protistology (not that kind of congress: we actually have a non-negative approval rating, I think), and happens to be in the city of my alma mater -- Vancouver. So it's like going home and binging on protists all at the same time!!! Binging on delicious Asian food too... haven't had pho or ramen since the last time I was there. Oh the two ramen shops on Denman owned by the same owner, specialising in different styles... we get specific over there. But I digress. Protists and ramen will, of course, be heaven on earth. OMG OMG OMG (there goes my flimsy veneer of professionalism).

And to top it all off, afterwards I'm going to a marine biology station, Friday Harbour Labs, on an island in Washington state (right off the coast of Victoria, BC actually, basically right on the border). Will be protistologising there for 2-4 months, depending on funding. Pictures and stories will follow. SO EXCITED. Ok, back to conference.

You can view the overall programme here: ICOP conference programme. The topics look very exciting, and negotiating the concurrent sessions will be living hell as I want to go to ALL of them. If any one in particular catches your eye, poke me and I'll try to investigate further. Or blog it. I like knowing what people are interested in.

Moreover: I will be covering the conference live, and then writing it up! I was generously sponsored by ICOP and ISOP to report the meeting. This is what I'll be doing:

Live tweeting: from @ocelloid at #ICOP13. You can also follow @ocelloid tweets on the front page of the blog (it disappeared somewhere...).

Blogging write-up: immediately after the conference, here. Or, if something really mesmerises me and I'm not too drunk in the evenings: quick notes during the conference. Actually (again, if I'm not too oversocialised/drunk), transcripts of the day's tweets should be posted here. The priority will be to soak in as much as possible during the conference though, and live tweeting does a good job at writing my own notes.

Informal interviews with researchers: Self-explanatory. Time-allowing on both ends. Can be done by email too. Please please let me know if you have any questions about any topic or for any researcher in particular!

Guest posts: I'll harass people to write guest posts about their research. Success not guaranteed, but I'll try to be extra annoying.

[technology-allowing] Broadcast of some talks via Google Hangouts on Air (streamed on Youtube). I've never done that before, so no guarantees -- but watch the twitter feed for further info.

Ideas from your end?

Again, main source is @ocelloid and #ICOP13. Hope to see you there, in ether or not!