Last week I went to the University of Nottingham with an IMA stall for the 3rd European Postgraduate Fluid Dynamics Conference (EPFDC). This is a conference organised by, and aimed at, postgraduate researchers in fluid dynamics and related fields and was partly funded by a grant from the IMA. I attended the final day of this 4 day conference and operated my stall during the poster session and lunch break. I met lots of postgraduate students and a couple of distinguished academics in the field who were presenting keynote talks. I was not feeling on my best form but managed to introduce a few people to the IMA who had not heard of it and sent people away with leaflets. Below are photos from this event: the first from my stall of the poster session and the second of my stall.

The behaviour of people at conferences never ceases to amuse me. If I stand by my stall I tend to be fairly lonely but if I go to the other side of the room and watch then people flock to have a look at it. Am I that scary? The other amusing behaviour is taking things from the stall. I watch people sidle up to the stall, look around and quietly slip one of the leaflets into their bag as if they are not supposed to. I wonder why people think I have brought dozens of copies of identical leaflets if not to give them out! Or perhaps people think that taking a leaflet or, worse, a copy of Mathematics Today, might be taken as a binding commitment to some terrible fate, such as joining the IMA!