10 Years of the Palmy Bioinfo Meeting
The Palmerston North Bioinformatics Meeting celebrated its 10 anniversary with a pot luck dinner in September. The meeting is not affiliated with any university or public research organisation. It is open to anyone interested in the practice and profession of bioinformatics. Much of the foundational work for what GFANZ has become had its start in this meeting.
At first it was mostly people who did bioinformatics as part of their profession. Later, students joined in (from Massey and then from other universities). That resulted in a positive change for the meeting – expanding the scope and opportunities for shared learning.
There have been 105 meetings and 65 speakers. The speaker for the 10th anniversary was GFANZ Secretary Shannon Ormond. It is very fitting, as Shannon was the first student to attend the meeting (while doing her Masters degree at Massey University). Now, she is a PhD Candidate at the University of Queensland. This is one example of connections that started at the meeting and have been maintained over the years and distances.
We did not know where it would go when it was started. We do not know where it will go from here. We do know people have found value and a sense of community there. It will keep going as long as that is the case.
