FLEET Inaugural Annual Workshop 2017

Location The Conference will be held in the surf resort town of Torquay, 1½ hours from Melbourne. Our conference venue, Peppers Sands, is a modern, beautiful resort on its own golf course just 10 minutes’ walk from the beach. Torquay is the gateway town to the famed Great Ocean Road, one of Australia’s great drives. MAP LINK.

We will meet at Peppers on Sunday evening. We will finish early afternoon on Wednesday.

Program: Program outline   |   Full program details

• Talks from an international guest kicking off each day
• The three RTs each start with a tutorial to maximise value of the individual project updates that follow
• The program allows unstructured time for networking, brainstorming, mixing
• Including generous lunch/coffee breaks so people’s brains remain razor sharp
• ECR workshop Sunday afternoon focuses on pitch/comms training

Posters There will be two poster sessions, to share research being done around the Centre. We expect all members to attend each session.

• 1st poster session 7PM Sunday with pizzas
• 2nd poster session 5.30PM Tuesday with nibbles

If you are presenting a poster, see the list here for which day you have been allocated, Bring poster printed on fabric, size A0. Ask Catherine Buchanan if you have any queries.

Bring the family Travel and childcare support will be offered to families attending the meeting. Families are invited to all social events (see Errol’s email), including the two poster sessions and the FLEET dinner on Tuesday. We’ll be road-testing our new school-age science show FLEET Geeks on the kids. We’ve also put together some recommendations for stuff to do in and around Torquay on the day. (Emailed to families, but if you missed them or want to add suggestions, ask Errol.)

Accommodation If you haven’t booked already ,use the accommodation booking link on the Peppers website. Enter the promo code FLEET to help us track numbers.

Transport FLEET will provide transport for delegates arriving at the airport, and from Melbourne CBD. See notes on transport here.

We are scheduled to finish 3PM on Wednesday. We’ll have two buses, plus a backup van for stragglers. It’ll be about a 1:15–1:30 drive between the airport and the venue in Torquay. This is timed around flights to Brisbane, which are in the shortest supply (5.30). There seem to be plenty of flights to Canberra/Sydney.

Share the buzz We’ll set up an image sharing site so that people can easily share pics of the workshop. (If you don’t want pics of you to be used in the Annual Report, let Errol know.) If you are on social media, we encourage sharing moments online (in keeping with FLEET’s social media policy, of course). Please use the hashtag #FLEET2017, so others can easily find your posts.

If you are volunteering to help during the workshop, THANKS. Please search volunteer session times for your name and carefully note what time you need to be available. Seek out Errol in the break before your volunteering session. See the program for how this fits in with other sessions.

Monday night is independent-exploration night Delegates are invited to explore Torquay’s restaurant area. See this page for eating suggestions and transport options (shuttlebuses provided).

Staying on in Melbourne If anyone would like to (and can) stay longer, let us know and we will help arrange lab tours, etc with your FLEET colleagues at Monash/Swinburne/RMIT. On the Wednesday night, Fresh Science in the Pub back in Melbourne will be a fun night with ten young scientists explaining their research in time it takes a party sparkler to burn out. You’re also invited to join the FLEET crew at Professor Ketterle‘s talk on the Thursday night and lunch with secondary students on the Friday. On Saturday afternoon in the CBD, the entertaining Science Says! discussion/comedy event will feature FLEET’s Chris Vale and Meera Parish on opposing teams.

Contact If you have any logistical queries, please email Errol Hunt and/or Tich-Lam Nguyen.