CHRO 2019: Bubbles in Belfast
Posted on September 30, 2019 by Cadi Davies
Campylobacter, Helicobacter and Related Organisms (CHRO) is an international, bi-annual conference that acts as a platform to share and advance the current understandings of Campylobacter, Helicobacter and related organisms, such as Arcobacter. The 20th CHRO conference was held 8–11 September in Belfast, and showcased venues including the Titanic museum and City Hall in addition to the conference venue. Cadi Davies attended this year's CHRO and gave a lightning talk called 'Bubbles in Belfast'. Here, she details her experience.
After submitting my abstract for the conference, I was accepted for a lightning talk. A lightning talk aims to briefly give an overview of a project or topic. The brief given for speakers accepted for lightning talks was a 10-minute oral presentation without PowerPoint slides. Visual aids and props were encouraged and the speaker was free to decide how best to keep the audience engaged.
As the lightning talks were to be presented during coffee breaks, rather than in scheduled sessions, keeping a caffeine-hungry audience engaged to allow me to publicise my research would take some creativity. I decided to embrace the brief and planned for props in the form of brightly coloured cards, LED bubble guns and three other students. I then proposed the idea to my supervisor, Professor Nick Dorrell. After being very enthusiastically given the green light, the pre-conference nerves kicked in.
Some context for the props: the research I presented was focused on outer membrane vesicles (OMVs). OMVs are also known as bacterial bullets, bacterial hand grenades or, in this case, bubbles. OMVs are small spherical structures produced by Gram-negative bacteria, these are formed by pinching off sections of the membrane surrounding bacteria. Bacteria are able to package a range of cargo into OMVs, which can assist with survival, virulence and disposal of general cell waste. My fellow students were to play the role of Campylobacter strains and fire off bubbles to depict changes in the amount of OMVs observed in the study.
Preparing for a lightning talk took more work than I expected, and presenting for such a short time slot, without the assistance of traditional graphs and diagrams proved tricky, but did provide an opportunity to get out in the sun for bubble gun rehearsals. Public engagement is of increasing importance to make research more accessible to wider audiences, and this presentation style gave me my first opportunity to really think about how to engage an audience rather than just relay my information, which was an invaluable experience.
The conference day arrived, opened by Professor Nicolae Corcionivoschi from the organising committee, closely followed by Professor Brendan Wren as the first plenary speaker. His talk was titled ‘Solving the Campylobacter conundrums – a look back in anger’. Then it was time for the coffee break and my talk. People appeared to enjoy my twist on traditional graphs, and the bubble display worked as a good conversation starter during networking opportunities later on at the conference. After my presentation, I could relax and enjoy the line-up of exciting speakers, such as the keynote speaker and Nobel Laureate Robin J. Warren and cheer on talks and poster presentations from other members of my research group, Janie Liaw, Geunhye Hong and Dr Ozan Gundogdu. The conference program also included workshops, the traditional Campylobacter vs Helicobacter football match, and the conference dinner which was held at the spectacular Titanic museum.
A marked difference with this conference compared to previous years was the increase in industry presence, highlighting the importance of combining the latest research with industry partners to help tackle the problem posed by these organisms to the food chain and public health. I was very grateful to have been able to attend CHRO 2019, it will be a tough act to follow with its diversity of talks and spectacular venues! CHRO 2021 will be held in Yangzhou China and will definitely not be one to miss!
