15th ECM Conference (Bristol)

A pre-conference social was held in the Hope and Anchor pub on Friday 18th November and 4 people attended and made a post-it note dodecahedron (http://twitpic.com/7fyuip) while talking and drinking.

The main event was held at the University of Bristol on Saturday 19th November. There were 5 key lectures, starting with one on "Chaos in Crystals" by Jens Marklof, followed by a talk about "Group Theory and a UKMT Appeal" by Geoff Smith. After lunch Snezana Lawrence spoke on the history of mathematics and why it matters so much and then Sean Collins gave a talk called "What can we learn from the birds and the bees? Optimality Models in Behavioural Ecology". Following the final tea break Mike Thelwall spoke about "Quanitative analysis of the social web from Twitter to YouTube".

Then while the votes for best talk were counted Erica Tyson gave an overview of the IMA and her work as the University Liaison Officer. The ECMG committee then introduced themselves and Ben Dias announced who had won the certificate for best talk.

During the coffee and lunch breaks the dodecahedron circulated with a stack of post-its and a group effort was made to construct a new one, but it remained incomplete. A rubiks cube with pictures rather than colours on each side was also solved in the breaks.

Following the conference 16 of the delegates attended a post-conference meal to continue the socialising.