Wednesday, August 14, 2020
Today, the conference began after breakfast with a poster session in the meeting room. Posters were mounted along the walls and each presenter was allowed two minutes to summarize their research. Afterwards, the rest of the group was allowed time to read the posters and discuss their content with the presenters. Adarsha, Sai, and Will, from the NCSU Christmas Tree Genetics Program, presented informative posters and did a great job of representing the program.
—— Posters by Adarsha, Sai, and Will —–
Following morning coffee break, the oral presentations resumed. Sai made his presentation during this session; his time slot had been changed because he had arrived a day late due to a flight cancellation. After the morning session, we headed downstairs and enjoyed a tasty buffet lunch at the hotel restaurant.
—— Lunch Buffet Table —–
I was moderator for the conference’s final presentation session after lunch. (I learned that I would be a moderator while reading the conference program upon arrival, a prank our Danish hosts played on all the moderators who were long-term colleagues of theirs.) NCSU graduate students, Adarsha and Caleb made great presentations during this session.
—— Adarsha and Caleb Presenting ——
The session was followed by a business meeting. One topic of discussion was the location for future meetings. It was agreed to returned to the every-other-year time frame and to continue alternating between Europe and North America. Covid had disrupted this pattern and changed the meeting years from odd-numbered to even-numbered. The group agreed that North Carolina would host the conference in 2026 and Germnay in 2028.
After the business meeting, we had some free time on our own before returning to the hotel restaurant for our Gala Dinner. Along with unlimited beer and wine, we enjoyed a traditional Danish Christmas Eve meal, pork roast with crackling, sugared brown potatoes, white potatoes, brown gravy, red currant sauce, and red cabbage. This was followed by a delicous dessert of rice pudding with cherry sauce. The atmosphere became very collegial and jovial. As the guests gradually left for their rooms, Jeff and I stayed behind to continue socializing with our Danish hosts. We were eventually kicked out of the restuarant and migrated to a smaller room for a final beer before retiring to our respective rooms.