It is almost time for the kick off at Genome Science, probably the best organised academic conference in the UK. It runs from August 30th to September 1st next week and sadly I can’t be there (just returned from holidays and too much going on). You can hear from a wide range of speakers in a jam packed agenda. This year it is hosted by the University of Liverpool, and the evening entertainment comes from Beatles Tribute Band “The Cheatlesâ€!

What other conferences are available for Genomics in the UK, and which one should you attend if you too can’t make it over to Liverpool? The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus is holding their first Single Cell Genomics conference from September 9th (sold-out I’m afraid). Personally I thought that the London Festival of Genomics was excellent and I’ve high hopes for the January 2017 meeting. 

Often it is word of mouth that brings a conference to my attention, but there are a couple of resources out there to help.
  • AllSeq maintain a list of conferences.
  • GenomeWeb has a similar list, but it seems less focused than AllSeq.
  • NextGenSeek has a list for 2016, but nothing on the cards for 2017 yet.
  • Nature has an events page (searchable) that lists 50 upcoming NGS conferences.

PS: please do let me know if you’ve particular recommendations on conferences to attend. And do get in touch with the groups above to list your conference on their sites.

PPS: If you can justify it then the HVP/HUGO Variant Detection Training Course – “Variant Effect Prediction” running from 31st October 2016 is in Heraklion, Crete – a beautiful place to learn!