ICMPC 12: Day 1 afternoon (arrival and reception)

Hi All! You find me today in VERY sunny Greece – which makes a huge change from London where we have had the wettest April-July on record. I am in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city, for one reason; ICMPC 12!!!

The 12th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition is one of the largest gatherings of music scientists in the world. ICMPC only happens every two years and it moves in a cycle from Asia, to America and Europe. Two years ago I was lucky enough to generate enough grant money to get all the way to Seattle for ICMPC 11, and you can read my many blogs about that conference here

Well, now I am at it again. Your very own roving reporter from the conference. I intend to write about as much as I can and certainly about everything that I see. Having said that, I will save you the story of my early morning taxi to Gatwick with a charming Albanian driver called Hans and skip to my arrival in this sunny place.

The conference began on Monday afternoon with two keynote addresses by Irene Deliege and John Rink but sadly I missed those. A late flight arrival combined with poor judgement about my eating schedule left me starving. So I was forced, most cruelly, to chose between knowledge and food – and anyone who knows me will not be surprised that I chose food! I ran into some wonderful friends, Leigh VanHandel and her husband Dan (both also starving), and we caught the bus into town for some nibbles and a refreshing cool drink. I got to taste a childhood staple of mine from when my family used to spend long hot summers on Crete – Fried Feta. Sounds odd perhaps but to me it tasted like being 7 years old again 🙂

We returned to a lovely opening reception where I was able to catch up with a number of my current and former students and to meet with friends and colleagues whom I so rarely get to see. This is absolutely one of the very best things about conferences and it is lovely to see many people here and hear about their latest work 🙂

It is also great to see a high proportion of students making up the delegates. Conferences are super places to get the very latest information about experiments that may not be published for months yet. Plus they are also an ideal opportunity to network and to gain skills (or at least an insight) into the bread and butter skills of oral and poster presentation.

All in all a good first day although more on the social side of conference life than on the academic. I decided to head early to bed for some rest on the lovely firm mattress and in the cool breeze of the air conditioning – looking forward to the first speed poster session in the morning. Back soon!