The 14th GLOBE Annual Meeting and Professional Development Workshop was held in Calgary, Canada, on 29 July – 3 August 2010. More than 150 participants from 29 countries took part in the welcoming events, addresses by speakers, networking sessions, field studies and other Professional Development (PD) activities over the course of the 5-day event. Co-hosted by the GLOBE Program Office along with GLOBE Canada in collaboration with CloudSat, the meeting provided opportunities for all participants to work to strengthen GLOBE around the world.
The Student Climate Research Campaign (SCRC); implementation of ESSPs and GLOBE protocols into the SCRC; updates on the growing Alumni Network; progress on the new GLOBE website; new mechanisms for sharing news through GLOBE's social networking sites; and a working session on local contributions to the GLOBE Program Office; along with opportunities to constructively address individual and collective challenges by meeting with GLOBE's program evaluator, were all part of the agenda for the 14th Annual Meeting.
Opening Day plenary and welcoming remarks were delivered by Meeting Co-Chairs: Mr. and Mrs. William Batycky, Dr. Teresa Kennedy, Dr. Donna Charlevoix and Mr. Martos Hoffman followed by The Honorable Elaine McCoy, Senator from Canada; Ms. Laura Lochman, Consul General of the United States for Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories; and GLOBE Director Dr. Ed Geary.
Dr. Ming-Ying Wei of NASA, speaking about NASA's continued support of the GLOBE Program, was joined by Dr. Christos Michalopoulos of NOAA who informed the audience of NOAA's reengagement with GLOBE as a primary program sponsor. Dr. Pietre Tans, of NOAA's Earth System Research Lab, gave his address on The State of Climate Science live and on-screen, from Boulder, Colorado.
On 2 August, the audience had the pleasure of a surprise virtual greeting from a group of GLOBE students and teachers appearing on screen live from their annual GLOBE Camp in Estonia. Two GLOBE Alumni, Matt Fenzel of the USA and Juan Diego Calvo-Perez Rodo of Peru, followed the students' greeting and outlined how former GLOBE students work with and support GLOBE in all regions.
On the perimeter of the large conference room where the main sessions took place, forty one poster presentations were on display and two evenings were set aside for poster presentations and discussions. The poster sessions provided participants the opportunity to share their research and provided a popular venue for socializing and story-telling through the poster presentations.
Members of the Blackfoot Tribe arrived at the closing banquet in full ceremonial dress to extend greetings the international participants and to draw comparisons to the stewardship of the land that First Nation tribes share with GLOBE. They provided a spectacular performance of their traditional dances. In addition, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), a recognizable symbol of Canada, were on hand to speak to conference participants and be photographed, as well.
Opening and closing days were made available in real time through on-line streaming through the meeting's online website. These videos have been archived and, along with other components of the meeting, are available to those who registered to follow the meeting online at globevirtualmeeting.org. If you received an invitation to join the Ning site, you can still do so to see archived materials and join in post-conference online discussions.
