Every four years, the entomology community gathers for the world meeting, the International Congress of Entomology, which is held in different locations around the world. I was last at ICE in Brisbane, Australia in 2004, a great excuse to roam OZ with my beetle girlfriend, Ainsley Seago. We started in Melbourne collecting beetles with Nick Porch, then to Sydney for more beetle work with chrysomelidologist, Chris Reid, and finally to Bris for the week that changed my life, adding a layer of collaborators and projects that still engage metoday.
ICE XXV was in exotic Orlando, Fl, conveniently close to home. And I had a packed few days as co-moderator with Michael Schmitt, University of Greiswald, Germany, for our 11 talks in the Phytophaga symposium. The daily round of talks, parties, and meetings leaves one elated and exhausted, simultaneously filled up with ideas and drained of energy by day’s end. Without a doubt, I now have another decade of questions, projects and specimens to work on with new and old collaborators. Email and internet are very useful communication devices to manage global partnerships in complex projects, but an hour sitting in warm sunshine with a cold drink, doodling ideas on cocktail napkins can change everything in the best ways.
Learn more about ICE: http://ice2016orlando.org/
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