2019 BC Inorganic Discussion Weekend

Sponsors

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About

This year’s BC Inorganic Chemistry Discussion Weekend (IDW) will be held at UVic May 10/11, Friday/Saturday.

Plenaries

Our plenary speakers this year are Brandi Cossairt of the University of Washington, Jeff Warren of Simon Fraser University, and Ian Manners of the University of Victoria.

Registration

Many thanks to our sponsors (top left) for their support in keeping registration as low as possible ($40). Registration will be done exclusively online at the link below:

Key locations on the day: Check-in for residences, the lecture wing where most of the events will be held, and the bus terminal. Park in Lot 5 or Lot 1; parking is $2.50 for Friday evening, $2.50 for all day Saturday, and free on Sunday.

Accommodation

Accommodation is separate from registration and is available at UVic at IDW rates until April 26, but some options are limited:

Program

The weekend kicks off Friday evening with the opening plenary and poster session, followed on Saturday with further plenary lectures, coffee breaks and lunch, multiple student discussion groups, and a banquet Saturday night. Keeping Mother’s Day in mind, no scientific activities are planned for the Sunday.

Poster boards will be 1.2 by 1.2 m. There will be separate poster prizes for grad students, postdocs, and undergrad students. It is not necessary to register for the poster session ahead of time, but each attendee is limited to one poster and they will be asked to register their poster on arrival at UVic for a space. All attendees will be asked to judge the posters they see to generate a short list, which will then be looked at separately by a judging panel to arrive at the winners.

Discussion sessions are led by one or two professors and contain 10-11 attendees. Each attendee will be asked to informally present their ongoing research “chalk-talk” style (<10 minutes), and then field questions from the room (~10 minutes). The atmosphere is intended to be friendly and constructive.

We have allocated 4 hours for these sessions, and discussion leaders are asked to keep on track with respect to time so everyone gets to participate fully. For a group with 10 participants, this equates to about 20 minutes each including questions (typically 10 minutes at the board, rest of time for questions).

Transport

Most people will get to the island via BC Ferries (your destination should be Swartz Bay). If you're on public transit, route 70 is lined up with ferry sailings and you will have to transfer to one of the many routes serving UVic. Google does a good job of predicting the best options; more details available from BC Transit. Buy a 1 day travel pass for $5. It is about 30 minutes by car to UVic, but transit will take >1 hr.

If you're in a hurry, fly to YYJ or take a harbour-to-harbour seaplane or the helijet.

Coming from south of the border? You can drive to Tsawwassen and take the same ferry as above, but there are other options - the Clipper if you're car-free or via Port Angeles using the Coho ferry.

Your first destination should be UVic Residence Services (Google maps link) to secure your accommodation.

Social

Mixer Friday evening.

Non-UVic attendees will have BC Transit bus passes included in their name badge, and UVic representatives will be escorting visitors downtown to selected locations after the mixer. Buses that go directly downtown from UVic are numbers 4, 14 and 15.

Banquet is at the University Club on Saturday night, and a cash bar is available during and afterwards.

Please hashtag your posts with #BCIDW for visibility for other attendees.

Organization

Organizers are Scott McIndoe and Robin Hicks. Enquiries should be directed to mcindoe@uvic.ca.