The Bay Area is home to many groups of language scientists, yet we have relatively few opportunities to connect with researchers at other institutions - to socialise, learn about one another’s work, exchange ideas, and form collaborations. We would often see one another at SfN or SNL, crossing the country, or even the globe, to hear about research being conducted only a short distance away. Since moving to the Bay, Laura Gwilliams began exploring the idea of a group that could bring the community together more regularly.

The value of such a group became especially clear in October 2023, when language neuroscientists gathered in Marseille for the annual meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language. At a social event, trainees from Stanford, UC San Francisco, and UC Berkeley met and realised that, despite their geographical proximity and shared scientific interests, they knew surprisingly little about one another’s work. They began discussing how Bay Area language researchers could become more connected, with two closely related goals:

1. Advancing the field of language neuroscience by exchanging ideas and developing new collaborations.

2. Creating a welcoming local community in which researchers could get to know one another, share their work, and enjoy working together.