[Coral-List] ICRS2020 and remote meetings

[William Precht]

Peter - well said.

I have attended 7 of the last 8 meetings (missed Cairns in 2012).

These are meeting I will always remember.  In addition to the broad scope
of the scientific presentations and discoveries - the personal
relationships developed, the meeting up with life-long friends and
colleagues, and personal encounters are things that should not be
discounted. That’s why these events, that only occur every four years, are
so special.

 I would have never been able to dive in Indonesia if it were not for the
2000 meeting in Bali.  Or meeting some of The Godfather’s of modern reef
science like David Stoddart, or Michel Pichon who were there from the very
first meeting.  Or seeing two of my mentors (Ian Macintyre and Peter Glynn)
receive their Darwin Medals. Or going to the Pearl Harbor Memorial in
Honolulu in 2016. These are all life-long memories that were made possible
by these meetings.

Also, meeting local citizens from the host countries and being exposed to
different cultures - aren’t these just as important.

Finally, if we believe that we are all in this together in the global fight
to save reefs - international collaboration is imperative and these
meetings bring that to life. Our science is not a block box - it is a
beautiful mosaic and the scientists involved are part of that picture.
Accordingly, I look forward to seeing most of you in Bremen next summer.

 However, with that said, there are many that can’t travel because of
various restrictions - time availability, costs, work approvals, etc.  And
then there are those who choose not to go for the reasons we have seen
posted on the coral-list over the past few days. For all these people being
able to share the events of the meeting through live streaming or making
the presentations available is a great idea. However, these links should
only be made available to ISRS (ICRS) members.

Cheers,

Bill Precht
——————

On Fri, Sep 13, 2019 at 12:40 PM Peter Sale via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> Well spoken Andrea, and congratulations to the organizing committee to
> have thought carefully about how to green the ICRS meetings.  Science could
> shoot itself in the foot if it were to address climate change by reducing
> opportunities for face-to-face interaction at conferences.  Coral reef
> scientists should all be trying to walk the walk on climate change, but
> there are many ways of doing this - avoiding our one global quadrennial
> meeting seems an unwise solution to the problem.  That said, as an
> over-the-hill reef scientist I am not planning to travel to Bremen - I wish
> those who do, the best possible meeting, and the invigoration of research
> ideas such a meeting can provoke.  Those of us who attended the second ICRS
> on board the Marco Polo never forgot that experience, and I can think of a
> number of subsequent ICRS meetings that were equally worth travelling to.
>
> Peter Sale
> University of Windsor
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-- 
William F. Precht

 “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice
you have”

Bob Marley