ESHRE: Microscopes, coffee and football
As well as the research presentations, there are also a huge number of company stalls here, mainly medical technology companies hoping to tempt fertility doctors with their latest equipment.
There's a bewildering array of microscopes, pipettes, incubators, vials and various implements whose purpose I wouldn't like to guess. Vitrolife (who provide culture media for IVF, among other things) are drawing big crowds, thanks to the fact that they have an espresso machine, and are providing the best coffee at the conference.
But top marks for ingenuity have to go to the reps from the German company MTG Medical Technology (which provides equipment for assisted reproduction and cryobiology) for managing to set up their stall's TV screen to show the World Cup. I just popped down to check how the Germany-Ecuador game was going. I was surprised to see that most delegates seemed pretty indifferent - unlike the reps, who were delighted that their team was winning 2-0.