Nascent

I'm about to climb on a plane to travel to what I expect will be the most amazing scientific meeting I've ever attended.

What would be your ideal scientific conference? It's a thought game I've sometimes played. Naturally, some of the most amazing minds on the planet would be there. Lots of them, but not so many that you might not hear or speak to most of them — around 200, say. And what about the topic? There are just too many interesting subjects to choose from, so my perfect meeting wouldn't have a theme as such: the topics would be as varied as the delegates, and it would be up to them to decide what they wanted to talk about. The venue? Somewhere warm (as in climate) but also cool (as in credibility). California? Silicon Valley? I know: the Googleplex!

Except it's not a daydream, it's happening for real, and even as I write these words I can hardly believe it. A couple of hundred of the greatest thinkers in science and technology (and me) are converging on the US West Coast for Science Foo Camp, a meeting being organised by O'Reilly (originators of the Foo Camp format) and Nature, and being hosted by Google at their Mountain View headquarters. In true Foo Camp style, there's no agenda yet, but by the end of Friday evening, shortly after our kick-off dinner, there will be. And then two remarkable days will follow.

It's an invitation-only event, so if you haven't already been invited and confirmed your attendance then, sorry, you can't come. But I will try to write up my impressions on this blog (when I'm not too busy participating). I'll also be collecting links to coverage elsewhere on the web under the Connotea tag 'scifoo'.

Now, off I go...