Good Morning All!
And officially welcome to the Workshop on Genomics 2014 in Cesky Krumlov. We started the morning is festive fashion with presentations by Karin Rengefors and Daniel Kintzl about what to expect for this years workshop and the highlights to come!
There are 74 students this year with 40% being graduate students, 40% post docs, 10% staff and 10% faculty. Sweden has the highest representation this year with 20 followed by the U.S., Germany and the U.K. but we’ve also got some great worldwide represetation including the Czech Republic, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, France, Australia and Thailand! (wow you all came from along way off; we salute you!), Denmark, Finland, Austria, Belgium, Brazil and the Netherlands!
Our interests run the gammet of genomics (genomes, transcriptomics, phylogenomics, metagenomics…) and organisms from the very big…one student sees rhinoceros genetic data cross his desk! To the very small…viruses and bacteria.
And we have a very fetching staff/faculty at your service this year…
You know what we look like know so don’t be shy about hunting us down for your questions, concerns, pub recommendations and general NGS merriment.
And of course our very handsome, friendly and incredibly knowledgeable faculty…
So don’t be shy…they are here to answer questions and dispense some knowledge a veritable Access Hollywood for NGS/Genomics at your fingertips. One student commented:
“Nick Loman! I follow him on twitter!”
Well now you get to see him and other’s in person!
A warm thank you to sponsors and affiliates: GENECO and BILS
The Workshop has been running 20+ years and in 2011 moved over to Cesky Krumlov…why you ask?
- Cheaper
- Friendly town
- Idyllic location
- But not so idyllic that you get distracted easily :)…anotherwards…it’s not Paris
- Conveniently located
- Good infrastrucutre
Don’t forget to look at the schedule on the www.evomics.org website for the latest and greatest in information, social events and documents.
And just in case anyone forgot…
You are here:
Some notes about expectations because this is meant to be an immersive intensive workshop these are some good things to keep in mind over the course of the next couple weeks:
- You will get tired
- You will get frustrated
- Take breaks
- Ask questions…don’t be shy! If you are shy ask the question on twitter #evomics2014 and Mel will ask for you…I’m not shy at all as many of you probably have realized!
- Bioinformatics applications are MOODY…seriously…we’re talking bipolar at times. One minute they are working beautifully the next moment they are giving you the finger.
So be Patient- Remember to breath
- Count to 10 and try not to beat up your computer too much 🙂
- Internet is reliable but may get slow because of the 90+ people on it.
- If you do not finish an exercise DON’T PANIC! There will be time to finish in continuation labs or open lab days.
- As exciting and pub life is here…do be sure to get some sleep; it’ll help a lot.
- Work in pairs or groups: everyone has different levels, different expertise, different levels of patience…working in groups will help immensely.
- Ask questions…oh I mentioned this already…but do truly Ask Questions that is what your instructors and faculty are here for to teach and answer questions and if we don’t know the answer you can bet we will find it for you!
- Everything will be available on the website as fast as Mel can get it up there. If you find you cannot download or access something come find me!
- Take advantage of the faculty’s presence, go to lunch, go to dinner, go have a coffee or a beer they are there for YOU!
The House of Prelate
- It’s Old
- Beautiful frescos and tapestries
- Don’t touch them…
- Seriously the painter is dead, he cannot return to fix them…
- and if he did wouldn’t that be a sight!
- So don’t touch the frescos…please
- Also wipe your feet and no food or drink
- There is strict arrival and departure, please be polite in abiding by that. The caretaker has a family to get home to so we don’t want to keep him longer than required.
See the website for the T-shirt competition…FAME and FORTUNE can be yours!
Please remember to wear your nametag or you will not be eligible for free coffee (TRAVESTY!) or discounts at the restaurants.
Daniel Kintzl is just about the nicest man you could ever meet and he has been arranging some lovely activities for the Saturday and Sunday. See the schedule under Free Day. He also has maps showing where you can get groceries, medicine, food, drink etc…it is a great resource so do take a look at his pdf.
I will leave you with some very helpful Czech phrases courtesy of Daniel…I hope you are all excited to jump in and get started! We’ll see you this afternoon for lab!
Na zdravi!
…Dr. Mel
….P.S. and don’t touch the frescos 😉