My attention has been quite focused as of late: I'm attending the 108th annual meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society, in Washington, D.C.108th? Yes, this organization has been around for a while. Röntgen himself discovered X-rays in 1895, so the field of radiology quickly evolved all the way to the stage of having stuffy professional meetings in only 5 years -- not bad for a pre-Internet technology.
The ARRS meeting is actually one of my favorite meetings of the year. The many inevitable opportunities to hear presentations by people poorly trained in public speaking are balanced out by zillions of other, more wonderful things. In the scientific sessions, I get to see all the new ways my colleagues are using technology to create fascinating images of the body.
I also enjoy the chance to amble through radiology receptions and cocktail parties in a form of Brownian motion, (see the closely-related term: drunkard's walk). One never knows which cronies one will encounter or what lovely conversations will ensue.
After saying "Yes!" to all sorts of invitations to speak over the past year, I have suddenly had to pay up, to the tune of 9 talks in 3 week long meetings out of the past 4 weeks.
At this meeting, I drew a 7 - 10 split: 2 talks on Saturday and one on Thursday. Thus, on Monday, I finally find myself with some time free to blog on Monday morning. If possible, I'll try to liveblog some of the meeting, if only to keep my brain from turning to mush, much as I did during the recent AUR meeting.
No comments:
Post a Comment