Brazil, Brazil … (Part 1)
Last Sunday we arrived in Rio de Janeiro for the AUREMN Conference. After a visit to the Christ of Corcovado, the very imposing 38 m figure of Christ sitting on top of a 700m high tropical jungle easily climbed in a 20 min funicular trip and affording the visitor incredible views of the Bay of Rio de Janeiro, we made our way by coach to Angra dos Reis for the AUREMN Conference.
Santi (left) and Carlos (right) in Leblon, RÃo de Janeiro
The conference was fabulously organized by a very hard working group, headed by Daniel Figueroa and the omnipresent and ever incredibly helpful Sonia Cabral de Menezes. These guys managed to put together a conference with an excellent scientific programme, a fantastic location, Hotel do Frade, a kind of lodge in an island paradise, an excellent social program (you can see here photos of the beach, the boat trip on the last day and some of the parties going on) and the most helpful organizing team you would ever wish to meet. Everything was spot on, even on details such as making sure vendor areas had internet provision, something essential to us but often overlooked by conference organizers. This meant that we had a fantastic time and a wonderful experience of Brazil, whilst attending some high quality talks in an environment fully conducive to our business. A huge well done goes to the organizing team and a strong recommendation to anyone who has chance to attend this meeting in future to do so.
Our stand was very busy during poster sessions and the breaks. We met many of the people in the Brazilian and South American NMR community, and were immediately impressed by the variety of work these guys are doing, their openness to new ideas and their enthusiastic welcome of Mnova. The trip was hugely positive and we are very optimistic about the progress of our business in Brazil. We also made many friends, I wish I could mention them all here, but there are too many and therefore I prefer not to name any, as I would not know who to omit. You all know who you are, though, thank you for your friendliness and for helping us fall in love with Brazil and feel welcome by the AUREMN and the Iberoamerican NMR group. We look forward to many returns to your conferences and to working with many of you in the near future. In a new post, I will follow up with my thoughts about the scientific programme …
In the mean time, just a quick special mention to O Rio de Janeiro. We were very lucky to be able to spend time there with real cariocas, as I have family there. This gave us a great insight into the city in a very short period of time. Rio is the most beautiful natural environment for a city, with a stunningly beautiful bay, great beaches (Ipanema, Copacabana, Leblon, an spectacular jungle which encroaches into the city at every opportunity and the most uncunningly perfect vantage points at Corcovado and Pao de Açucar. The people are friendly, the food great and the night life excellent (check out the area of A Lapa and the incredibly beautiful restored XV century building housing the supercool samba house ‘Rio Scenarium’.
Overall, this has been a week we will never forget
