NGS Summary

I am back home and trying to put my NGS experience in perspective. Overall it was a great experience. I learned a lot and got to hear some of the big names in our field.

There was an infinite variety of topics but very little variety of format. With about two hundred sessions, there was plenty from which to choose, but they were all one hour lectures with powerpoint. Some were longer and called workshops, but I believe they had registration fees beyond the one for the conference itself.

I have gone to conferences with 'poster' sessions - shorter presentations on a large topic. One session I did not attend was called 'How Grandma met Grandpa.' I can see several people doing short presentations in a one hour slot. There was only one general session. From the way rooms were crowded for some of the popular topics and/or speakers, considering a fewer large sessions is in order.

My experience as an official blogger was not good. Except for the recognition on the NGS website which I appreciate, there was no way to find me at the conference - no ribbon on my name badge, no coffee and doughnut with the other bloggers. I'm not sure what my purpose was meant to be so it's sort of unsatisfying not to know whether I met it or not. Thus you see there were no posts on day 3 or 4.

I'm sure one of the reasons to have official bloggers is to have everyone feel good about the organization, which I do - and I hope you do. I just wanted to wrap things up by saying a few things that need improvement.