Launch of the 25th IOC

Last night was the reception and launch for the 25th International Ornithological Congress.  The venue was a surprise - a bit like being at a stadium rock gig, with over 1000 people seated in the main auditorium, and two big video projection screens (drive-in screen kind of big!).  The speeches made mention of everyone who had ever had any role in putting the IOC on here, which took a while ;-)  There was one legitimate legend amongst them though - Prof Elizabeth Höfler has been working on bringing the IOC to Brazil since 1996 - she looked pretty happy ...

The real session start today (Monday) and there are about 950 people presenting oral papers or posters during the week.  If I'm lucky I'll see 30-40 of those.