Welcome to part 3 of this blog series. As I mentioned in parts 1 and 2, we were very proud to be hosting the International Biochemistry of Exercise Conference 2024 here at the University of Limerick. I thought it might be interesting to read about some of what goes on in the background to putting on an international meeting of this scope and magnitude. In Part 1, I wrote about preparing your bid which you can read here. In Part 2, I outlined some of the key aspects of organising the conference. In Part 3, the last of the series, I will delve into running the conference itself and the associated aftermath.
Final Preparations
No matter how early you start preparing or how much you already have done, the final weeks and days are likely hectic. This was certainly true for IBEC2024. Right up to the final week we were still booking some speaker travel thanks to local Aer Lingus strikes and some cancelled flights in the States which impacted some of our speakers. We had to finalise menus and food options based on food allergies and preferences. Now that numbers were (almost!) finalised this meant confirming all the bookings mentioned in Part 2 for catering, for the social programme, the Soccer tournament, our careers event. We had opened a late breaking abstract deadline and left registration open right into the event. So this meant numbers were being updated all the time as we wanted to enable as high as an attendance as possible. In the end, we landed at 230 attendees which was in the ballpark of where we were aiming. The last few days saw the launch of our conference app, which detailed the programme and sessions and was really user friendly.
The Scientific Programme
Once the meeting started wee knew the scientific programme would look after itself, as we had identified a stellar line up of speakers. In all we heard presentations from 3 keynote speakers Prof Juleen Zierath, Prof Mark Febbraio and Prof Kirsty Elliott-Sale, the John Holloszy Young Investigator Award winner Moritz Eggelbusch, the Jacques Poortmans Honour Award recipient Dr Laurie Goodyear, plus 12 other senior invited speakers and 20 early-mid career speakers selected from abstract submissions. We also had 130 poster presentations across 3 poster sessions. The science presented was outstanding across the board and led to robust and interesting discussions during Q&As as well as at the refreshment breaks.
The Social Programme
Thanks to us achieving our expected number of attendees it meant there was some funds available in the budget to host a late planned welcome event on the first day of the conference. After a brilliant day of science attendees gathered at the Stables bar on campus for some food and refreshments. The atmosphere was fantastic, with a real buzz around the venue. The evening was particularly enjoyed by our Spanish attendees who secured their place in the Euro final!
Day 2 was our main social event which was a ‘Trad night’ at Cask Limerick. We had excellent food, entertainment from Liam O’Connor and his band and of course a few refreshments were enjoyed by all. Liam O’Connor put on a super show and had many of our international colleagues on the dancefloor. We even had an impromptu version of “Black Velvet Band” form keynote Mark Febbraio which epitomised the fun and spirit of the evening. This night was the turn of the English to celebrate with victory over the Netherlands securing their meeting with the Spanish in the Euro final. Thanks to Jack, Sarah and team at The Kilmurry Lodge for hosting such a brilliant event.
We also played our Soccer Match on Day 2 and this was a great chance to build into the programme an opportunity to break out, get some exercise and have some fun. This is not something you see at many conferences, and it can be hard to fit your exercise in with early starts, busy days and evenings. But it is something I would recommend all conference organisers considering. We figured we better practice what we were preaching. We had a very competitive game played in great spirits. Thankfully the sun shone and we were able to showcase the incredible facilities on campus here at UL.
In addition to our three main social events, all of the breaks offered opportunities to network and socialise. The quality of food was excellent, so thank you to Treacy and her team at Aramark. We managed to not set the place on fire for at least 2.5 days, until a minor and funny incident on Day 3, thankfully nothing got out of control!!
Support and Sponsors
No conference can be run without a big support team. I was supported by local organisers Dr Grainne Hayes, Dr Alex Gamble. Prof Brendan Egan and Prof Phil Jakeman. Thanks also to departmental colleagues DJ Collins and Darragh Hogan for setting up posters, and the soccer match and Mary Hackett and Nina Gray for social media support. A huge thank you to the conference organising team at UL, especially Megan Tuite, Deborah Tusge, Fiona Bynane-Power and Kellie Ryan for their support in the build up and during the event. Thank you to our sponsors without whom the event would not be possible, Optimum Nutrition, the Health Research Institute UL, Journal of Sport and Health Sciences, Food for Health Ireland, Aurora Scientific, Innovation Zed, UL Provost Office (Prof Shane Kilcommins), Advanced Exercise and Health Science journal, The Physiological Society and the American Journal of Physiology – Cell Physiology.
Closing
Though the conference is over and we had a fantastic few days at UL, there is still some tidying up to do such as closing out invoices etc. We also want to capitalise on the meeting, gain momentum for the international research group and indeed build on the showcase for UL and local colleagues. To that end, I am working on publishing the proceedings of the meeting as well as some other reports. We hope to leverage the interactions to form new exciting collaborations to advance the biochemistry of exercise field further. We look forward to the next meeting which will be held in Roanoke Virginia in 2026!
X Profile for updates on IBEC2024: https://twitter.com/BiochemExercise
Professor Brian Carson is a Professor of Exercise Physiology in the Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Limerick.
Contact: Brian.Carson@ul.ie. Follow on twitter: @DrBPCarson. Research Profiles: ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8350-1481
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