VOLUME 2 - ISSUE 4 - MEETINGS REPORT

Well, the Newcastle programme is now set and I am delighted to report that a good number of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) have arranged to meet at the Winter meeting “Up North”. The planned activities range from symposia, oral or poster sessions to “Business Meetings” in a local hostelry. We are still awaiting the first SIG lecture (UK-based speaker; 30min) at the beginning or end of an oral communication session. So, if any SIG business meetings reach “Any other business” before last orders, can I suggest that the most eloquent (but still vertical!) speaker present be elected to open the batting at the next set of SIG oral communications! The least eloquent and most horizontal attendee can, of course, be put on one of those £1-99 Easyjet Newcastle flights to Outer Mongolia that you were all circulated about recently.

Early September saw the first joint focused meeting with another society. This was arranged over two days at Liverpool by Kevin Park and his team (the one based at the University rather than Anfield or Goodison Park), on behalf of both the BPS and the British Toxicology Society. The sessions were attended by nearly 300 delegates in a single large lecture theatre that took on the appearance of mission control with the individual desk lighting. It was an excellent meeting with a good representation from both academia and the pharmaceutical industry. Topics covered mechanisms of chemical toxicity, attempts to predict toxicity from chemical structure and the problems of individual susceptibility to adverse drug effects. The format worked very well and demonstrated the power of joint meetings with another society under the guidance of an international leader in the field. It was also clear that the BTS has a lot in common with our own society. Many thanks to Kevin and everyone in the department. Now you have worked out the ingredients of a hugely successful joint meeting with the BTS, you really must do it again!

The high attendance by delegates from the pharmaceutical industry at Liverpool was very welcome and I would like to see more meetings arranged with direct relevance to industry. How about an annual focused meeting based at one of the pharmaceutical industry research sites? Topics could include High Throughput Screening, Pharmacokinetics & Drug Metabolism, Psychopharmacology etc. As with the Liverpool meeting, this could also be a joint meeting with another Society. So who would like to arrange the first one? I am currently working my way around the different pharmaceutical companies (large and small) and I am also in talks with representatives from a number of different societies, so if you need a “date” fixing up, let me know.

At the end of September, the 2nd James Black Conference was held at Churchill College in Cambridge. The topic was “New Targets in Pain and Inflammation” and the organising committee consisted of Rod Flower, Marzia Malcangio and Mauro Peretti with input from Hans-Georg Schaible, Dan Simmons, John Wallace and, last but not least, Tony Yaksh. The meeting was a great success and Rod and his team generated a great collegiate spirit among the delegates. I thought that Rod was particularly brave in building several themed free-format discussions into the programme. However, these worked very well and demonstrated the success of the camaraderie developed by keeping delegates on site, making them share all their meals and providing them with quality time in the bar. It was also helped by delegates such as Tony Yaksh willing to play devil’s advocate or speculate as discussions developed. This collegiate spirit, together with the excellent “fiddling” by the entertainment at the conference banquet, culminated in the massed dancing display by eminent speakers, delegates and senior members of the Society to “Zorba the Greek” which was a sight to behold! Negatives can be purchased from Luisa Hambley for a large fee. (Julia, there is a sliding scale and the presidential snapshots will be very expensive!)

The aim is to bring the delegates attending James Black Conferences back to a Focused Meeting two years later. Andrew Tobin and Fiona Marshall are bringing the cell signallers from the 1st James Black Conference to a focused meeting in Leicester in April 2005. I am delighted to report that Sue Brain (in her capacity as the SIG coordinator for Pain and Inflammation) will also be arranging a similar focused meeting for those who attended this 2nd James Black Conference in the spring of 2006.

We still need ideas and thoughts for future focused meetings, so if you have a good suggestion, want to launch your particular SIG with that special symposium in the Guinness Brewery in Dublin or wish to organise that “must go to” meeting you’ve always been waiting for, then let Luisa Hambley or me know.

I would particularly like to encourage younger members of the Society to think about doing this. Luisa and the BPS Office provide a great deal of support and details of funding etc are available on the BPS website.

Steven Hill
stephen.hill@nottingham.ac.uk