Following the last ELN meeting in Europe (ELN: Laboratory Informatics for the 21st Century, the SMi Group, London, January 2010), a considerable amount of discussion ensued on an ELN LinkedIn Group in which some thoughts were expressed about the role and effectiveness of ELN conferences.  The general consensus was that delegate attendances were falling, content [...]

It sounds as if there are several schools around the world to train future bioinformaticians and laboratory informatics professionals. It is only on the European projects I have been working on where I seem to run into graduates of such a program, and it always seems the person comes from the GPHY School in Poitiers, France ( http://www-gphy.univ-poitiers.fr ).

I recently saw a documentary on British TV about the low cost airline RyanAir. The CEO claimed excellent customer service because they are able to deliver the cheapest flights in Europe (cost), best punctuality (time), and the most modern fleet of aircraft (quality). However, their customers do not necessarily agree with the assertion [...]

Let me admit this – I’m among that techie crowd that e-mails everyone. I resist picking up the phone when I don’t absolutely have to. Much of my time spent with other people in our industry is spent either in e-mail or in on-line groups. But even I can tell you that this is a poor substitute for leaving your desk and attending a meeting.

IQPC’s forthcoming conference on ELNs and Advanced Laboratory Solutions offers a number of pre-conference downloads (podcasts and PDFs).   But you’ll have to sign in to get them!