Next week, it’s finally there: the Microclimate Ecology & Biogeography conference we have been preparing for so long! You can find all details at www.meb2022.com.

An international conference with 128 participants, of which 28 are joining us virtually, with representation from 26 countries across the globe, with 2,5 days of talks, 9 keynote lectures, 3 workshops, a sponsor exhibit, a pre-conference excursion ánd dinner, it got all the ‘real conference’ vibes.

With all that organization now in the pocket, I wanted to reflect shortly on how much time that whole conference has taken me so far. We had a great team of course, with Koenraad Van Meerbeek and Pieter De Frenne as main co-organizers, and a whole suite of lab members and colleagues helping out with everything from excursion logistics to abstract selection. I don’t know their time investment, so I can only speak from my personal tracker (all thanks to the fabulous ‘Timeular’ app).

The idea for this conference was born in March 2020, right when Covid hit us for the first time. Since then, there was a lot of brooding over the plan, a few preliminary meetings and a lot of trying to find a time period that would work with this global pandemic going on. Our first real trial was for January 2022, resulting in a significant uptick in working hours in autumn 2021 (see graph below). Covid once again blew those plans, however, so we lay low for a while till spring came around. Then we went all out, now with this August/September as our target.

So here we are: a total of 91.8 working hours from my side further, the conference is almost ready to welcome you! Be prepared for next week simply blowing off the chart…