Last week our lab helped organize Zoological Day conference, and I want to sincerely thank everyone who contributed. Even though it was spring school holidays, our technicians went above and beyond — preparing registration and name tags, chasing conference bags, arranging coffee-break supplies, and organizing refreshments. We may have overestimated how much non-alcoholic drinks and wine we needed, but thanks to Anna Mrazova and the other ladies on the team, all remaining food was donated to charity. I (??) might have understimated the need for coffee outside of coffee breaks …

I’m also proud of our students, who represented the laboratory excellently with their talks and posters. Congratulations to Jakub Pawlik for winning third place for best poster with “The interplay of intraguild predation and elevation shapes spider communities of a tropical rainforest.” Once again, thank you to everyone for your hard work and for representing our laboratory so well.

Meanwhile, the only thing I personally achieved last week was skiing fast and furious in a questionable attempt to upgrade myself into a more efficient cyborg. As a result, this post is arriving on Wednesday instead of Friday, and I’m now looking forward to a bit of hand “refurbishment” surgery. Timing is everything – new screws and fixed tendons in hand will surely type the grants faster than ever.

Official report from the conference (in Czech) can be found here.