Having three telemetry-related events under my belt already even before my first full annual cycle here at CTT, I expected that my first American Ornithological Society (AOS) meeting would, like each of the other events, possess a certain je nais se quoi (a term I knew prior to arrival in francophone Ontario, thank you very much!).
On August 7th, David and I met at 5am at CTT and drove to Philadelphia to catch our flight. Air travel, fortunately, was uneventful . . . unless you count the fact that a key component of the emergency exit door fluttered above my head for about the last 20 minutes of our flight. . . .
We arrived late Monday afternoon to our hotel, settled in, and immediately began exploring London, Ontario! The weather on Day 1 left a bit to be desired. Fortunately, we had lovely temps and blue skies for the remainder of our visit.
There were many cool nature-themed murals in the immediate vicinity of our hotel!
. . . . along with questionable-at-best items on the ground. . . .
We might've enjoyed some amazing dosas . . . multiple times!
David and I met up the first evening with friends Miguel Matta and Fernando Gabriel López and talked research projects and telemetry tech.
The next day, it was off to find some breakfast. Along the way, we encountered some streetwise Canada Geese. In Canada. Go figure.
Once we had our booth up and running, it was time to get busy being busy! The two of us had plenty of traffic and great conversations the first few days. As the conference wound down, so too did the number of people stopping by the booth, but we always enjoyed a steady stream of visitors.
Most of the poeple we engaged with wanted to hear more about our brand-new radio tag, the BlūMorpho. This solar-powered tag can be made to weigh as little as 0.06g. The potential for recording movement data on insect and hummingbird species generated a lot of interest, not to mention many people taking photos of the tag itself!
In addition to this new ultralight tag, we also debuted our CTT Sidekick. This device is designed for hand-tracking our entire line of 434MHz and 2.4GHz tags, such as LifeTags, PowerTags, HybridTags, as well as the new CTT BlūSeries Tags, including the BlūMorpho.
We weren't just chatting about our product line with potential new clients, though. One of the best parts of attending conferences is reconnecting with clients who already use our tech in the field. Conversations about how client projects are coming along help a relative newcomer to telemetry like me better understand how the different species and ecosystems that our clients work with determine what tech they use, not to mention all of the modifications and considerations that each project's build requires.
Our time was not limited to the booth, however! We also enjoyed some top-notch talks, awesome poster sessions, and lovely dinners with friends.
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One evening, while strolling back from dinner, we unexpectedly caught a few moments of "Batman Returns"! A portion of Dundas Street (same street as our hotel, the London Armouries) had been closed off so folks could gather around to view the film on the big screen.
After six very full days of booth work, attending talks & plenaries, eating great meals, and connecting with friends, colleagues, & clients, David and I departed on August 13. Our brains were filled with anticipation of new projects on the horizon, memories with friends and clients, and our bellies filled with the yummy food of London, Ontario.
