[Coral-List] Reflections on ICRS 11

[Jessica Carilli]

Another suggestion would be not to have posters and talks concurrently. 
  I'd go for a longer meeting if that's needed for poster presenters to 
have dedicated sessions.
Cheers,
Jessica Carilli

On Aug 1, 2008, at 7:07 PM, Phil Dustan wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> I’m sure you’ll all join in thanking all the people that worked so hard
> to make the ICRS 11 a success.  It was a wonderful opportunity to meet,
> hear, discuss, and share ideas with new and old colleagues alike; well
> worth the expense and time of traveling to Fort Lauderdale.  I think we
> can all agree that the meeting was HUGE and it took superhuman efforts
> to make it work as smoothly as it did.  Congrats to Dick Dodge and the 
> ICRS.
>
> That said, I’d like to offer the following observations and thoughts in
> an effort to improve ICRS 12:
>
> 1. Too many of the talks I attended went over their allotted time,
> leaving no time for discussion.
>
> 2. Too many of the talks I attended were full of information that had
> already been published.  An extreme example of this was a very senior
> researcher who must have shown at least 30 slides, each with a bold
> citation across the bottom.  His talk also ran over by a wide margin.
> Who gave him the license to waste my time?
>
> 3.  Too many presentation slides offered far too much information to 
> absorb.
>
> 4. Too many presentations had not bothered to check the pre-internet 
> era
> literature, or even basic reference texts such as the Treatise on
> Invertebrate Paleontology.  The older literature is still full of good
> science.
>
> 5. It has always been my idea that meetings are occasions to share new
> information, not overwhelm the audience, impress the funding agencies,
> badger us with old facts, reinvented wheels, or pronounce your own
> revision of history.  Save this kind of stuff for gossip during breaks,
> dinner, or drinks.
>
>
> As we begin planning for the next symposium, now less than 4 years 
> away,
> perhaps the next organizing committee could consider some changes such 
> as:
>
> Perhaps each talk could be limited to no more than 10 slides with 7
> minutes for presentation time and 8-10 minutes for questions.
>
> Additionally, and I think extremely important, presentations should 
> show
> only new, unpublished research, not stuff that’s already in the 
> literature.
>
>
> -- 
> Phillip Dustan
> Department of Biology
> College of Charleston
> Charleston SC 29424
> (843) 953-8086
> (843) 953-5453
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>
>
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