Conferencing in Banff

Within my field of science there is a smaller type or conferences called Keystone meetings, and the more I go,the more I like them. They are often super specialized (this last one was “functional neuro-circuitry of feeding and feeding disorders” - rolls of the tongue easily, right?) and they have started to feel a bit like family reunions. In addition there is a lot of networking between academic and industry researchers and I often bump into former Danish colleagues, which is nice. The only thing I don’t like so much is that they are mostly hosted on ski resorts and that’s kind of not really my thing. The rest of the family thinks it is ridiculous that I get to go places like Banff, Snowbird, Keystone, and Santa Fe when I don’t ski, but well..... what can I do?

But this time was truly special as I got live on the Fairmont hotel, which is literally built as a Scottish castle:

Complete with knight armors

And stone carved squirrels looking like they are either from a horror movie or had a very bad night😳

But my favorite place was by far this one:

Outdoor hot pools are THE BEST! And I also got to see some fantastic views just by going downtown to eat lunch

The scientific side of the conference was OK. There weren’t a lot of ground breaking discoveries in the talks but there is more and more interest in the hormone I currently work with (GDF15) and I am personally quite happy that my career has not yet put me in touch with super aggressive vomiting shrews, who play dead in the cage so they can attack you as soon as you take the lid off.

In addition I got to spend time with a few of my new colleagues as I am soon to start a new job. This is something that has been in the making for a long time and we have kept kind of quiet about it. But more about that will slowly start dripping in here as I move to the East Coast. Next week😱