13th International Xenopus Conference

Please set aside September 12 -16, 2010 for the 13th International Xenopus Conference. The meeting will be held at the Chateau Lake Louise, a spectacular 5 star Fairmont hotel overlooking the lake and glacier and surrounded by fantastic hikes. September is early Fall and the forests of Banff National Park will be in spendid golden color. While there will be snow on the mountain tops the weather should be very mild. Special rates have been negotiated with the Chateau for rooms and meals for the meeting plus for 3 days prior and following, should you wish to spend some additional vacation time at this amazing venue. Guests are welcome. White water rafting, heli-skiing, climbing and other options are available. A hostel is located 2 km down the road for those on a limited budget.

This year, in addition to the usual line-up of great talks, there will be several informal sessions centered on the Xenopus community. these will include round-table discussions for postdocs approaching the job market and for assistant professors getting started and looking towards tenure. Look for announcements for these discussions at the meeting. In addition, on the 16th, immediately after the conference, we be holding a PIs meeting for Xenopus resource development, where we will begin setting priorities for the next iteration of the Xenopus White Paper (http://www.xenopus2010.org/xenopus2010/xrd.do).

Costs are still being calculated and negotiated- but a working estimate for planning purposes is shared room and all meals US $ 800 / CN $1000 (all costs inc. taxes and gratuities). Private rooms will be available as will a meal only plan for guests. We will offer subsidized rates for graduate students through grant applications that are in progress.

Some free time for hiking will be available each afternoon and more adventurous options available on one afternoon. Evenings will have full lectures by featured speakers followed by poster sessions.

Direct flights to Calgary (the serving airport, code YYC) are available from multiple international destinations incluing Amsterdam, Basel, Frankfurt, London, Machester, Paris and others. In those cases where direct flights are not available, non-stop flights to Calgary from major Canadian and USA hubs are available including Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco (all good for flights from Asia), Dallas, Chicago, Denver, Toronto and many others. Buses will transport attendees from Calgary to Lake Louise and multiple shuttles and rental car agencies offer flexible alternatives for local travel. More travel details will be posted at a later date.

Preliminary invitations for speakers have been sent out and most slots are full. The organizers are planning on supporting new laboratories and new faculty in selecting speakers and we request that speakers from the 12th Xenopus conference understand that labs that were not represented in Germany have priority this year.