All the news on the forthcoming NGS IF'10

In an extraordinary show of organisation, I have just put up the agenda for this years NGS Innovation Forum even though it’s not until November – a whole 5 months away!

The reason for this organisation is mainly due to a wonderful programme committee for the event consisting of users, IT sys admins, Campus Champions and NGS staff members. We have put together what will hopefully be an interactive, engaging and thought provoking event where everyone will come away with some new found knowledge.

On the first day which is primarily aimed at users we will be showcasing some of the tools from the NGS such as the UI/WMS and Hermes. This will not be “death by PowerPoint” and instead NGS staff will demo the tools and walk you through using them from a users point of view. We will also be having a session where we can gather feedback from delegates about the NGS and respond to your comments.

If you’d like to come away from the event with more than new found knowledge be sure to submit a poster abstract for our poster session on the Tuesday evening. We are inviting all users to present a poster showcasing their research using the NGS and there will be prize for the best poster as voted for by the delegates.

The second day will be aimed more at IT staff, sys admins, research computing staff etc. There will be presentations from the “coal face” with a presentation from a NGS member site detailing their experience of working with us. We will also be focusing on the bigger picture by showing how the NGS can facilitate collaboration between research groups both nationally and internationally. This will be followed by presentations by large European multi-institution projects. We know that allowing external people to use your resources is a big responsibility so we have dedicated a session to “keeping track” which will also allow for discussion regarding accounting in institutions.

All in all we hope you will find the event both stimulating and informative. Keep an eye on here for registration opening and hopefully we’ll see you in November!