EMBL has been training scientists throughout its history. The first recorded practical course was hosted at EMBL before the laboratory buildings in Heidelberg were officially inaugurated – an EMBO Course in Electron microscopy of nucleic acids in 1977. Today, EMBL hosts over 7000 attendees to courses and conferences every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a long time, EMBL courses and conferences were organised by the scientific community. That, of course, was back when all EMBL employees could fit into a single room. But today over 35 dedicated staff at EMBL Heidelberg and EMBL-EBI Hinxton are responsible for the smooth running of the ever-expanding EMBL-wide course and conference programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meetings and conferences here at EMBL have created a community and people come back for that community<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
One of the first non-scientific staff to work on EMBL events was EMBL Alumna Nelly van der Jagt<\/a>. She remembers how in 1983 she began working for the EMBL Director General\u2019s office and soon found herself juggling four roles: personal assistant to the DG and the Administrative Director, as well as organising practical courses for scientists and the fledgling EMBL International PhD Programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even then, however, EMBL staff went the extra mile for conference attendees and Nelly remembers an instance when a couple arrived at the conference registration desk with a child they needed taking care of for the day. \u201cI phoned Konrad M\u00fcller, then Head of Personnel, who promptly drove the child to the European school in Karlsruhe,\u201d says Nelly. \u201cAfter he came back, the boy spent the rest of the day painting in my office until his parents picked him up.\u201d Later the Kinderhaus at EMBL Heidelberg was set up, and today conference attendees can apply to use the facilities while attending our conferences<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The growing professionalisation of the Course and Conference office is something that many attendees have noticed over time. \u201cThis,\u201d says Iain Mattaj, EMBL Director-General, \u201ctakes a huge load off the scientific organisers and lets them focus on what they are good at: selecting scientific topics, speakers and participants who will combine to make an exciting meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The growth of courses and conferences continues<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Adela Valceanu has seen that change, since she started working for the Course and Conferences Office at EMBL Heidelberg in 2008. \u201cWhen I started working at EMBL we were working in a container before the completion of the Advanced Training Centre (ATC) in 2009,\u201d she remembers. \u201cAt that time, we were a team of four: the head of the Course and Conference Office and three other people.\u201d The ATC has allowed EMBL\u2019s external training programme to expand, currently running 5 times as many events as before the opening of the ATC. Less than 10 years later the team in Heidelberg has grown to twenty people, divided between a courses team, a conferences team, and a marketing team, making sure that every aspect of EMBL events goes smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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