Another great year

by Christine Curcio

This is my longest stay at ARVO in many years, as I came for the ISIE meeting on Saturday, and my lab has a poster today (Thursday).

It’s been a great week, as always. My yearly clock has been reset by lots of positive interactions with colleagues, old and new. I made headway on two manuscripts, with different co-authors who I normally don’t get to sit down with anywhere else but ARVO.

Our Sunday SIG on Cholesterol, Lipoproteins, Retinal Health, and Maculopathy was well attended, and I felt that the diverse group of speakers educated the audience well about the pressing questions and opportunity in this field. The timing of this SIG, relative to newly published genetic associations for cholesterol-processing genes in ARMD, could not have been planned better! The program planners somehow had all the SIGs back to back in that room, however, so there was no time between to move people in and out. But because we organize the SIG in advance by having speakers share talks and coordinate messages, we covered everyone’s talk and had 25 minutes for questions, just like the SIG rules say to do.

Things about meeting logistics to recall for next year:

1. Make your 2011 hotel reservations online starting June 1.
2. Scale down your expectations for service at the convention center. I sensed that they were really short-handed this year, due to the economy – shorter hours in the building, fewer food choices. And now that it is known that ARVO is leaving FLL, don’t expect it to improve next year.
3. Plan your schedule for the scientific sessions, like all the bloggers tell you to, but if you download an itinerary in Excel spreadsheet form, don’t forget to proofread before you print and bring. I came with a very nice printout in a binder that was sorted by day but not by poster board number.
4. Attend the ARVO concert on Wednesday evening and see what wonderful music your colleagues can make. Thanks to Mike Marmor for keeping this going for 19 years.

Two of the best scientific things I heard in FLL this year were Alex Walsh’s vision of a hand-held OCT, presented at the ARMD Education course, and Rosalie Crouch’s lab’s work on MALDI-TOF of human RPE flat mounts. These things will stick in my mind and influence how I think.

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