Digital Science Retreat 2016: Manchester’s Finest Weather, Meeting Colleagues and the Science of Smell!

Each year, staff at Digital Science and our portfolio companies come together in one location for a company-wide retreat. You can find our post about last year’s retreat in Boston here. The retreat is a mix of social and professional activities, with plenty of opportunities to meet new colleagues and to share and discuss ideas. Ultimately, it’s a great chance for everyone in the company to catch up with what their counterparts are working on across the globe and think about better ways of approaching the challenges we face as a business. This year’s retreat took place in the great (albeit rainy) city of Manchester –  European City of Science 2016 and the city that gave us Lowry, Sir Alex Ferguson, Morrissey, the Stone Roses and of course, graphene!

Amarjit Myers, the organiser of the event, explains:

“The annual Digital Science Retreat is a unique opportunity for our growing global team to gather in one place to share ideas and experiences. People come together from very different companies and disciplines to meet and learn from old and new colleagues, but also get an update on Digital Science priorities and strategy for the coming year.” 

The retreat took place at the University of Manchester, with drinks, dinner and dancing at the Palace Hotel. We were honoured to have Professor Matthew Cobb from the University of Manchester as our guest dinner speaker, who gave a fascinating and interactive talk on the biology behind our sense of smell. Professor Cobb covered a lot of ground, taking us from maggots to neanderthals and I don’t think Digital Science will ever think about smell in the same way again!

We were also honoured to invite Dr Mike Conlon, Project Director at VIVO, Duraspace to share his experience and thoughts on the research information landscape in the US today and the current appetite of US institutions for making greater use of technology to satisfy both internal and external reporting of research activity.

One of the “extra-curricular” highlights was the guided science tour of Manchester which provided lots of interesting insights into the history of science within the city.

Bronze of #AlanTuring at great mini science tour of #Manchester by Jean of @MCRGuidedTours @digitalsci #dsretreat16 pic.twitter.com/fMox6dKHcm

— marjmyers (@marjmyers) June 17, 2016

Our annual retreat is an important event for Digital Science. It gives us the chance to reconnect, to learn and to take a step back from our daily tasks to reflect on our purpose. We are already looking forward to next year!