The 4th International Symposium on Enabling Technologies for Proteomics (ETP)

Now, this definitely isn't the first conference I've been to, but it's definitely the first one in the field of science =P So i was naturally a little uncertain of what to make of it all and had no clue what to expect of all the presenters =P.....I was hoping they'd have a prettier logo for me to put on here, but guess in the realm of science prettiness really isn't much of a virtue XD


The conference was held at the Four Seasons Hotel downtown, and basically the program was just speakers after speakers doing presentations and more presentations (with little coffee breaks and lunch breaks sprinkled here and there (although lunch was filled with more talks, this time from companies would produces the instruments and machinery for proteomics talking about their latest product)

I've definitely attended better and more worthwhile conferences XD, but for a fresh undergrad student testing the waters with my toe it wasn't too bad an experience =P.....true there was a ridiculous amount of jargons and abbreviations (things like GC-MS and SDS-PAGE i know about, but stuff like MALDI? QToF? triple Quad?MRM? Orbitrap? CAD? ETD?) I have no idea what they all mean other than they either stand for some fancy equipment or some fancy protein analysis procedures........but asides from the handicap in general proteomics knowledge and a very rudimentary knowledge of molecular biology (of which the specifics I could once recall for the animal cell final has diffused out of my mind) the whole conference wasnt too too bad =P The food and drinks were good, AND we all get a complementary cocktail drink at the end of the day (tho I chose not to take advantage of that =P)

The only complaint that I have to make is how insanely overtime we went.....we had to cut our break short by 20 minutes as well as truncate some of the presentations in order to end 40 minutes AFTER the scheduled time!.......and although there were quite a number of really good presenters (especially the first two, the last two, and the one right before lunch =P), there was this one lady that was absolutely, DISGUSTINGLY horrible........

You might have thought a presentation on protein-based diseases would have been rather interesting, but all she did, especially towards the end of that dreaded ordeal......she shoved mass spectrum after mass spectrum after graph after graph after more mass spectrum after more mass spectrum after more graphs after even more mass spectrum.......and all she did with them was talk on and on about who knows what.......she mentioned something about different residues and the random subtle difference between the stupid mass spectra.........everyone at the table just looked at each otherand rolled our eyes everytime she switch slides and it was more mass spectra on the most unisnpiring grey background............I wanted to go smack her and send her to jail and force her to take two terms of COMM before letting her back out...........