Participant Testimonials
I always enjoy BIRS workshops. The environment is great for collaborations and the invitees are always a select group. The talks and the discussions are high quality and stimulating. I always leave here feeling I learned something new and I get energized to do further research. This particular workshop gave me significant feedback on my research directions and resulted to nice connections being made between my work and research in related fields. It exposed me to interesting new problems in my field and directions that are very interesting and relevant to my work.
The workshop was certainly successful in the sense that it gave me new ideas and allowed me to meet new people in the field. Having said that I think there is room for improvement regarding - discussions, I know this is up to the organizers but perhaps there is something BIRS can do to "force" more discussions so the meeting does not run the risk of becoming "yet another fully packed conference where people are preaching to the converted". Please do get me wrong the quality of the speakers was outstanding but it would have been nice to have a format that allowed for more informal discussion aside from the quality time over diner and in the lounge in the evenings. - involvement of graduate students and PDFs. I think this meeting could have done better in having more graduate students participate. The main organizer brought some students but that was about it. I think this is a missed opportunity and perhaps it would be good that BIRS is more proactive in that regard.
I would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to hold our workshop at BIRS. To our mind, it was a great success as also all participants confirmed to us. Most of the leading researchers in the field were present and the talks were all of very high quality. Numerous very fruitful discussions took place, and I know of many new collaborations which were started during the workshop. Let me also add that to me personally, BIRS has a special atmosphere, which I find extremely inspiring. I think - besides the high quality of the workshops - it is the unique combination of excellent organization, very friendly and helpful staff, comfortable rooms and lounge, and quiet and beautiful surroundings.
