For the last few months I've slowly been planning a comic debate. It's an idea I had over a year ago, but the other SIMBA executive members (especially the two German ones) were not very keen when I first suggested it! Being stubborn though I was going to try and organize this debate... even if it killed me! Luckily Debbie was, up until recently, an executive on her own social group called SWIM (Supporting Women in Medicine) who put on a debate at toward the end of each every year. Last year Debbie was the host and the topic was "out with the old in with the new... that's what the med school should do". It was a fantastic event (of course because Debbie organized it) and although a couple the speakers took it more seriously than others, all of the talks made for great entertainment. It also convinced me that it was time the IMB had it's own debate!
Many academic departments have, over time, build up a culture. The IMB is a very new institution, and although it attracted many people (like me) with it's big vision, I do often feel like the focus of our institution is becoming less about encouraging scientific curiosity and dreaming big, and more and more about performing. I've spoken to a lot of people about this, and almost everyone agrees that the IMB is always too serious! People do tell jokes during seminars from time to time, but only the important people get away with humour and to be brutally honest IMB lacks the friendly atmosphere I have heard about in other buildings and was used to back at JCU. Maybe it's just that this culture is established over time, or maybe this is just how life is in a research building, but life inside the building just seems too clinical. A lot of labs have their own social events, but the reason I like SIMBA is that it tries to bring ALL students together. Anyhow I'm rambling too much. The bottom line is my goal has become to organize a great debate and I want it to become an annual event - something people look forward to each year and where everyone can let their hair down.
Originally I had a "contact" in Roche who I was going to ask for sponsorship but then I realized the best idea would be to go through IMBcom. IMBcom is the commercial arm of our institute, and not only provide our institute with lots of money, but organize some fantastic events of their own (especially the biobusiness retreat for third year PhD students) and provide heaps of support for SIMBA. Peter Isdale is the CEO of IMBcom and the friendliest guy you could imagine.... he even looks like Santa. Anyhow, I approached Peter and Kellie (who organizes events) and he was on board straight away.. he even convinced Peter Andrews, the chief scientist of qld, and Brandon, the director of the IMB, to be speakers! My other speakers were three of my favourite IMB co-students and SIMBA champions: Rehan Villani, Kate Ewen and Simon Wilkins ... Jenny Martin, a young and successful group leader(not many group leaders are young), and Peter Isdale. Unfortunately organizing it hasn't been straight forward and both Peter Andrews and Brandon had to pulled out a few days before the meeting I scheduled! I rushed around, but eventually we found Zachary King, who's a pretty cool guy and was my "supervisor" for the biobusiness retreat, and Glenn King, who is a really cool group leader who was on Catalyst recently for his awesome work with spider toxins. We had the meeting, and it went pretty well, except for the fact that Simon student told me he'd be away on the day of the debate, July 4! Arrgh! I'm going to try and chase the friendliest and sportiest of all group leaders, Matt Sweet to replace him. I don't know if anyone's noticed, but the best people I know are all have origins in the country. I just think it makes them down to earth.... Matt Sweet I believe came from Rockhampton, and I've had a few nice chats with Peter Isdale and just discovered that he's spend most of his childhood traveling between country towns such as Nambour and Yarrabah (on the opposite side of Cairns from where I lived).
Anyhow, I've pre-prepared most of the advertising for the debate and I'm pretty proud of it. I spent a few hours last weekend photoshoping some photos I took and I'll put a copy of the flyers below. It's still hard to tell how many people will come, but I think it should be pretty good!
For the last two months my PhD work has been tracking hundreds of dots on the screen... and for the next two months at LEAST I'll be tracing circles... on the screen. The job is and it's so repetitive it's little wonder I need distractions. Hopefully the debate will be my last big contribution to SIMBA though! I say this a lot, but I really want to finish my PhD.
