Day 1 at the NGS Innovation Forum '09

Nearly the end of the first day of the NGS Innovation Forum ’09. From an organisers point of view it’s gone okay – all the speakers turned up, everyone was fed and watered and we have a good mix of people here.

The day kicked off with an introduction from the NGS Executive Director Andrew Richards who used some interesting analogies (London underground and shipping containers!) to describe the past, present and future of the NGS.

Next up was David Fergusson from the NeSC training team who talked us through the life cycle of a job on the NGS including birth, mating and death accompanied by some of his own great photos– very interesting!

After a lively coffee break it was time for the break out sessions which, judging by the amount of talking, were lively and constructive. Half way through the sessions everyone swapped to the second session so well done everyone for finding your place! I’m looking forward to the feedback sessions later on from the groups to see what was said and the issues that were raised.

Another coffee break and back in for a presentation from Steve Newhouse, Director of EGI who talked about the European future which is currently the presentation I’m sitting in!

So a great day so far with a lot of discussion and a lot of interesting issues raised! Wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Almost there

Things have been rather busy here at the NGS lately as we prepare for the Innovation Forum which starts tomorrow.

NGS staff will be at the venue from early on and registration starts at 9am with plenty of tea and coffee available so come along and have a chat before the crowds appear! We're expecting 131 people over the 2 days with a good mix of users, IT support staff and other e-research organisations represented.

If you can't make the event then don't despair, blog posts live from the event will appear here and the slides will be available on our website.

Hopefully we'll see many of you tomorrow in The Magic Circle Headquarters!

NGS Innovation Forum '09 - registration open!

The registration for the second annual NGS Innovation Forum is now open! It will be held on the 21st - 22nd of October at The Magic Circle Headquarters in London - a stones throw away from Euston train station.

The event is held over 2 days with the first day primarily aimed at NGS users or potential users. There will be presentations on what the NGS is, how to run a job on the NGS and user success stories as well as break out groups on a variety of topics and research areas in order to gather feedback and input from the community.

The second day is aimed more at IT service providers and will feature presentations on what it means for an institution to join the NGS, what the NGS offers, how the NGS can help with outreach and dissemination and cloud technology amongst others.

The event is free to attend and delegates are welcome to register for one or both days. Further information and a link to the registration site can be found on the event page on the NGS website.

The Magical NGS

A heads up for your diary here!

Following the very successful Innovation Forum held at MoSI last November, the dates have been confirmed for the next annual NGS Innovation Forum. IF'09 will take place on the 21st - 22nd of October at the Magic Circle Headquarters in London. Yes that Magic Circle!

The venue is literally steps away from Euston train station and only 10 minutes from Kings Cross and St. Pancras. We will have the entire venue to ourselves for both days of the event and there are sure to be some surprises in store!

If you were unable to attend the last IF, catch up with what you missed through the wonders of technology! The agenda and some of the presentations from the previous IF are available here, videos of the presentations are available here and photos from the event are available on our Flickr site.

I bet you never thought you'd see a photo of Paul Daniels on a grid computing blog did you?