Live updates

July 13, 2024

Thank you all for making this conference a wonderful experience! I am overwhelmed by your fantastic engagement up to the very end even attending the very last sessions Friday morning and still discussing science at the remaining posters during the last coffee break! I hope most of you are relaxing at home or spending a nice day in Blacksburg. Unfortunately, I saw that some of you made it home very late or have not even made it home yet because of long flight delays. I hope also you can relax soon at home as well!

Please take our post-conference survey which we need for our reports to sponsors and to inform preparations of the next ICPPB & Biocontrol 20xx conference!

July 12, 2024

Thank you all for a wonderful evening last night! A  couple of reminders: Please check the shared spreadsheet for your drop off information and take our post-conference survey

July 11, 2024

5:00PM Please take our post-conference survey to use in our reports to our sponsors and to inform preparations of the next ICPPB & Biocontrol 20xx conference!

2:45PM We just dropped off the first 2 people at the SmartWay Bus stop on campus. That means, the return has started. The SmartWay Bus takes you to ROA airport in a little over an hour for $4 (but you need exact fair in cash; I have some cash if you need it). Please check the shared spreadsheet for what we have planned for you for tomorrow. The Roanoke airport is small so being there a little over an hour before departure is generally fine but I understand if you want to make sure to make your flight and leave earlier. Therefore, if you want to leave earlier, just let me know by email and we put you on an earlier van or bus. Do not change the spreadsheet yourself. Also, if you stay at the Hyatt or Hilton Garden Inn or Residence Inn and you think you can walk to the Inn, please do that. If you have a larger suitcase, we will come and get you by car before your departure. The vans will only leave from the Inn and NOT stop at the other hotels. If I forgot anything, find me and we will find a solution.

12:55PM Afternoon sessions II from 3:35PM - 4:55ePM will be switched. The Biocontrol session will be in the Latham Ballroom and the ICPPB session will be in the Assembly Hall. The Up-to-date program has been updated already.

9:20 AM We are working on how to get you all back to the Roanoke airport and Amtrak train station. We will schedule Uber rides for everyone leaving early tomorrow morning. We are adding more information for later flights during this morning.

July 10, 2024

7:25AM We are working on the drop off schedule for Friday. If you leave on Thursday or Saturday, we will advise you how to get to the airport but we will not have any vans. As for the time in column F in the spreadsheet, please enter your flight departure time and NOT the time you want to leave the Inn. It seems that a lot of people are leaving at similar times so this will be a combination of taking people all the way to the airport in the vans, dropping people off at the Smartway Bus stop in Blacksburg (which takes you to the airport for $4), and putting people who need to leave very early into contact with each other so you can share an Uber ride. The shared spreadsheet will have all the information you need by tomorrow, Thursday, noon.

July 9, 2024

11:00PM Excursion participants, remember to be in front of the Inn at 8:15AM Wednesday morning to start getting on the buses! Sleep well and see you all tomorrow! See a detailed Excursion program here. Please make sure to bring your name tag and your five yellow tickets!

4:10PM If you are not sure if you signed up for the excursion: everyone with 5 yellow tickets in the name tag, is signed up. If you can either not attend although you are signed up or you want to attend but you have no yellow tickets, please come by the check-in desk or email Boris at vinatzer@vt.edu as soon as possible.

4:05PM Remember the restaurants that are offering a discount to conference attendeees: Kuma Moon, 725 University City Blvd, Blacksburg, VA 24060,  (affordable) and The Black Henn (fine dining), 126 Jackson St NW, Blacksburg, VA 24060. There are also many other restaurants near the Inn and downtown.

10:05AM I apologize for the low temperature in the room today. We asked the temperature to be raised. I hope you will feel more comfortable soon. 

10:00AM We are almost out of small T-shirts but we still have lots of medium T-shirts and some L and XL ones. It will be hot tomorrow on our excursion, so if you go on the excursion, think of buying a hat and or T-shirt today.

8:45 AM  After break, we will have another "icebreaker activity" for mentors and mentees to find their assigned numbered table based on this spreadsheet. Table numbers we will added to each table.

8:30 AM  Session 1 is on its way. Mentor-mentee seat assignment will continue during coffee break. Also, today is the day for our group photo! I will announce where we will go for that after morning session II. In the afternoon, we will split into two parallel sessions. The biocontrol sessions will be in the Assembly Hall. We will direct you there after the after-lunch poster session.

July 8, 2024

10:45 PM I want to thank all of today's speakers, all organizers, all volunteers, and really all of you for making this first day of the conference a wonderful day full of exciting science, networking, and fun! See you tomorrow for day 2!

5:25PM Who wants to go for a run with Quan Zeng at 6:30 AM tomorrow morning? Meet at the lobby of the Inn at 6:30AM. Quan will be there.

4:50PM We will ask all travel awardees to come on stage for a picture just before the ice breaker activity at 6:30PM. So, if you are a travel awardee, please be in the main ballroom at that time.

4:45PM Do you want to host the next ICPPB and/or Biocontrol conference? Talk to Boris and prepare to advertise your proposal on Friday.

11:55AM Don't forget that we have T-shirts and hats for sale at our check-in desk.

11:50AM If you need to charge your phone or computer and you do not have a US adaptor, the check-in desk has various chargers for you to charge your phones and computers.

7:50AM There will be continuous snacks and coffee all morning long. So, unless you are really hungry, you may not need breakfast.

6:55AM Good morning ICPPB & Biocontrol 2024 attendees! I hope you all are well rested and ready for an exciting day of science and networking! Our last three invited speakers arrived early this morning. I cannot thank Kassaye and Mat enough for picking attendees up from the airport! See you all soon in the Latham Ballroom!

July 7, 2024

11:00PM We are so excited that most of you made it here and you were able to join the Welcome Reception tonight! I heard a question about the location of the conference tomorrow. It is here in the Inn right next to the check-in desk. It is the Latham Ballroom (there is a building on campus called Latham Hall but that is not where the conference will be held). Also, poster presenters of posters in Session 1 are expected to be at their posters during poster viewing/presenting on Monday and Tuesday and poster presenters in Session 2 are expected to be at their posters during poster viewing/presenting on Thursday (same total length of time as session 1, just condensed into 1 day). See you all tomorrow!!!

10:00AM Do you want to see some history before the conference? Walk to the Smithfield Plantation. It is a 20 minute walk from the Inn. The address is "Smithfield Plantation Rd, Blacksburg, VA 24060".

7:45AM The day has come! The conference check-in desk will be open 2:00PM to 7:00PM and the Welcome reception will start at 6:00PM tonight at the Hahn Horticulture Garden. Pick up your welcome package and name tag at the check-in desk. However, since we thought some people may not make it to check-in before the reception, you can attend the reception without registering. If you want a drink or two, we will check your name and give you two "drink tickets" to use at the bar. Directions to the Welcome reception are in the printed program in your welcome package. If you don't have that, put "Hahn Horticulture Garden" in Google maps. Address is "200 Garden Ln, Blacksburg, VA 24061". Hope to see you there! If you are planning to attend an afternoon workshop, please check the Up-to-date program when and where to meet teh workshop organizer.

July 6, 2024

5:35PM I should have specified the dress code earlier. There is no official dress code. Sunday evening's welcome reception is really informal. You can come in sweats or shorts or whatever. For the main conference, you can dress up if you want or you can come dressed like you dress every day to go to work. It is completely up to you. 

11:35AM It is going to be a hot week with a good chance of some thunderstorms here in Blacksburg 

9:55AM Tonight a dozen of you will all arrive on United flight UA4339 at 6:42PM and others a little before and a little later. Since not everyone will fit on the van, we will schedule a couple of Uber rides for the rest of you.

9:50AM Our opening talk speaker, Gabriele Berg, arrived last night!

July 5, 2024

2:00PM Our first attendees have arrived! Welcome!

1:15PM Lightning talk presenters: If you are presenting your poster as a 3-minute one-slide lightning talk, upload your single-slide PowerPoint presentation into the folder corresponding to your session:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hyBcK27yhWxch4G2WBLkjVEx6qKscWxH?usp=sharing

You can find your session in the Up-to-Date program.

12:30PM Poster-presenters: Please note that we have two poster sessions. You can find out in which session you present here: https://sites.google.com/vt.edu/icppbbiocontrol2024/abstracts/posters and in the Up-to-Date program you can see when you should present your poster. If you are in session 1, you can put your poster up Monday morning starting at 7:30AM and take it down Tuesday evening at 5PM. Poster Session 2 presenters put their posters up between 7:30AM and lunch time on Thursday. All posters will be in Latham Ballroom CDE, the room adjacent to the main conference room, Latham Ballroom AB. 

July 4, 2024

2:43PM The airport and train station pick-up schedule will be updated as we get updates from attendees so please check the schedule during your trip. Also, see the van drivers' contact information on  the second tab in the same spreadsheet.

2:14PM We can't wait to see you! Email Boris at vinatzer@vt.edu or call him at 540 585 5858 any time if you run into any issues on your way to Blacksburg!