Friday 17 September 2010

Close of Conference

On the last day of RSS 2010, it is gratifying to reflect that the prior hard work of RSS Staff and the Programme Committee has borne fruit in all that has happened this week. However, perhaps more gratifying has been the many ways in which the conference attendees have contributed to the successes of the conference. Presentations that have been appreciated by many, perceptive questions, and willingness to lend a hand in chairing sessions have all been a feature of our time in Brighton. Additionally, the social events provided a great opportunity for all to simply spend informal and very enjoyable time together.

Therefore, thanks to all for being here!

Vern Farewell
Chair, Programme Committee, RSS 2010

Significance session

Friday, morning: the Significance session - the last session of the last day of the conference – is about to start. I hope lots of people have decided to delay getting on their trains back home for an early weekend, so that they can stay and hear it. Lots of things have been happening to Significance this year, from the ASA linkup to an all-singing, all-dancing website that is about to start, and I want to tell delegates about our plans for World Domination – fledgling so far, but even Rupert Murdoch’s media empire had to start somewhere. But my bit is only the intro. We try to make the Significance session the entertainments high-spot of the conference; and this year, with Danny Dorling and Yan Wong as guest speakers, we should achieve that fairly effortlessly.

They have both turned into media stars at communicating science and stats; and they have both done good stuff for Significance. Yan’s pleasantly surreal piece was on cows pointing north. Danny’s several pieces included one on his mad, wrong-shaped maps of the world, which looked rather fantastic on the page and made that piece one of the best-looking that we have ever run. Yan doesn’t only have a Ph.D in genetic self-destruct mechanisms in plants; he hasn’t only helped Richard Dawkins write his best-selling ‘The Ancestor’s Tale’; his big-time fame comes from presenting BBC’s flagship popular science programme ‘Bang Goes the Theory’ – which by excellent timing has just started its third series. It’s had magnetic cows, cyclists powering a house, and spawned a facebook ‘We Love Yan’ page. Episode 2 of Bang Goes the Theory is on tonight, at 7.30. Catch it!

But first catch him, and Danny, at the Significance plenary session. 12.15. Be there!

Julian Champkin,

Editor, Significance.

Conference Dinner


Last night the annual conference dinner was held at the Holiday Inn on the Brighton seafront.


The poster winners were presented by the President with Christopher Nam picking up his first place certificate for his poster on Exact distributions and sequential Monte Carlo for change points.


The attendees were treated to an after dinner speaker by Andrew Dilnot, who is chair of the Statistics User Forum and Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford. He kicked off with a couple of questions for the audience, seeing what they knew about who pays how much tax in the UK and what proportion of single mothers are in their teens. He explained that this was something he did with many audiences asking them basic statistical questions about society. Invariably audiences had very little awareness of the true figures. He linked the importance of having a good awareness to the aims of the getstats campaign.


The event was a great opportunity for delegates to relax together and reflect on the conference.