I am always amazed when the space agencies around the world succeed in sending people into earth orbit and bring them back safely to the ground. Months, if not years, of preparation go into all the planning, budgeting and training of the people who each contribute an important part to the overall mission.
So it is with the ARVO Annual Meeting. The decision to hold this year’s meeting at the Orange County Convention Center was made almost 10 years ago. Arrangements for lighting, catering, networking — all the behind-the-scenes necessities — were worked out over a year ago. In fact, some of the most important details for next year’s meeting are already being finalized even before this year’s meeting has begun.
We expect that more than 12,000 ARVO members, exhibitors, and support personnel will descend on the convention center next week, and we will be ready. Banners will have been hung. Coffee service kiosks will have been set up in strategic locations and baristas fortified for the week’s onslaught of vision scientists separated from their regular sources of caffeine. A flurry of activity will commence on Sunday with symposia, posters, presentations, and a special keynote. We will have blastoff!
I have a suggestion. Spend a few minutes browsing through the convention center and notice how well this all works. I bet you will be amazed, like me, to see that the buses run on time, the digital presentations come up when called for by the speaker, the lines are not really THAT long at the coffee stations, and there will be smiling faces all around. Once we can figure out how to keep it from being so cold in some of the rooms, the ARVO annual meeting, like the space shots, will be heavenly.