It seems like a long time ago but the BAPLA09 conference is now well and truly behind us, the APLers have gone home and it just remains for us to report back to those who couldn't attend what we did and what happens next.
We saw some new members enter the APL community and
from Europe, USA and UK some 49 people rallied to the call and hoisted the banner high. The conference was brisk and covered a lot of ground in just two days - 20 presentations, 1 AGM, 1 guest speaker and a band; I hope we didn't cram too much in. Nevertheless the assembled crowd still managed to find time to solve all of the worlds' problems either in the coffee lounge or, more than likely, the bar.
from Europe, USA and UK some 49 people rallied to the call and hoisted the banner high. The conference was brisk and covered a lot of ground in just two days - 20 presentations, 1 AGM, 1 guest speaker and a band; I hope we didn't cram too much in. Nevertheless the assembled crowd still managed to find time to solve all of the worlds' problems either in the coffee lounge or, more than likely, the bar.For those of you who could not attend the conference we plan to publish the presentations shortly as we managed to record the sound together with a screen capture for most of them. Details will follow soon.
The food was great, the company even better and the environment in the hotel very comfortable. Tea and coffee flowed throughout the day and some members of the party were even seen jogging around the grounds on occasion. I would have joined them but was just too busy (yeah right).
We had 20 or so presentations with most running between 30 and 45 minutes so the pace was brisk having time for only 10 minutes or so between talks. During our initial scheduling we had only planned for 7 presentations per day thereby giving much more time between for 'APLchat'. The demand from speakers took us rather by surprise so it was increased to 10 per day but even then we could not accommodate everyone!
We had 20 or so presentations with most running between 30 and 45 minutes so the pace was brisk having time for only 10 minutes or so between talks. During our initial scheduling we had only planned for 7 presentations per day thereby giving much more time between for 'APLchat'. The demand from speakers took us rather by surprise so it was increased to 10 per day but even then we could not accommodate everyone!
Day 1 tried to be technically biased with Day 2 more application development - not sure if we quite managed to achieve that but if you close one eye and squint ... We covered topics from nursery school education through to universal string theory, and where application development is heading through to 138 Billion record databases (give or take a couple). Then just to be different our last formal speaker, Catherine Lathwell, showed us one film she had made and discussed another that she was planning - on APL. I hope that everyone found something to interest them.
It was a slight shame that the UK companies we had hoped would attend essentially didn't. This was not because they were not interested (which I guess is a good thing) but because of the current financial situation and budgets being so tight. The messages coming back was the same from all so maybe next time!
As has b
ecome the norm in APL conferences we had a banquet with music and a speaker at the end of Day 1. Our band 'The Casablanca Steps' were very entertaining and went down well. have a look on youtube - its much easier for you to take a look than for me to try and describe. Our speaker for the night was Johnny Ball who is a well known TV personality here in the UK. He gave us a passionate and entertaining after dinner speech on topics covering education, mathematics and the environment - and that certainly led to some discussion afterward!
ecome the norm in APL conferences we had a banquet with music and a speaker at the end of Day 1. Our band 'The Casablanca Steps' were very entertaining and went down well. have a look on youtube - its much easier for you to take a look than for me to try and describe. Our speaker for the night was Johnny Ball who is a well known TV personality here in the UK. He gave us a passionate and entertaining after dinner speech on topics covering education, mathematics and the environment - and that certainly led to some discussion afterward!Overall we had an excellent two days and I certainly felt it was worth the effort of organising it. So what happens in 2010? Well I for one have not yet recovered from 2009 but if we can generate the interest, come up with some new ideas, and get some evening seminars going who knows ... Let me know what you think and what you want.
Paul Grosvenor
(Chairman BAA)
