SVP 2012

When this post is published, I will be half way across the Atlantic on my way to the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s annual meeting – this year being held in Raleigh in the state of North Carolina. If I am lucky I should be able to catch Dr. Lawrence Witmer’s public presentation at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences tonight – “Fleshing Out the Past…in 3D!” Looking forward to this one.

As is always the case, with each and every year, this meeting is eagerly awaited and there are many significant and fascinating contributions to see and hear as four packed days of talks and posters get underway tomorrow.

Unusually, theropods, and particularly my tyrannosaurs, get first billing tomorrow and a few of the talks that I am most interested in all happen before ten o’clock in the morning! This is unusual since these talks tend to be toward the end of the meeting and you kind of build yourself up to them normally but there you go – at least it will be different.

In fact the first day is my most frantic day for talks as I will be moving back and forth between the different halls to catch those I am most interested in. On the plus side that means the rest of the week should be a much more chilled affair whereupon I can digest what has been presented on the previous days whilst taking in the new.

I am also really looking forward to meeting so many of my colleagues again and also to meet some for the very first time. The social side of the meeting is just as important since so often the only correspondence you have with your peers is via email or the web and you can learn so much more by actually meeting and talking to people. And my experience at SVP had always been positive and the people have always been kind and courteous.

So there you are – that’s where I’ll be for the next four days. And, of course, my review of the meeting will start shortly after and there is a wealth of material to reveal believe you me. Happy days!