The ERS ‘virtual’ Spring Meeting held 23 and 24 April turned out a resounding success: there were no last minute technical hitches, the agenda went ahead as planned and the resulting decisions and other information were delivered on time. ERS staff members remained on-hand throughout.

In concrete terms, the ERS Barcelona 2010 Scientific programme is now settled, and the best abstracts allocated into Free Communication Sessions. Said Prof. Laurent Nicod, Chairman of the ERS Programme Committee, “We are delighted everything went so smoothly. We were able to get through all the work as planned, at the same time as maintaining the quality and level of close scrutiny that participants at ERS Congresses have come to expect.”

The virtual formula has proved so successful that ERS is looking into how it might be used for other gatherings. As for the Spring Meeting itself, some Assembly members confessed nonetheless to missing the habitual face-to face discussion around a table.

The Spring Meeting—where the Assemblies gather once a year to debate and tie up key elements of the ERS programme for the immediate and medium term—went virtual after ash from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano had closed European air space.