08 Jul OrganoVIR Scientists Gather for a Virtual James Bond-Themed Event

Last week, we hosted the “For Your Science Only” event, a 2-day virtual James Bond-themed event for our network members, in Gather Town. As new users of this virtual space, we were curious to see how our event would unfold – and we were not disappointed!

Combining a virtual space (think of spaces in video games) with virtual interactions, Gather Town recreates real life events in a virtual setting, allowing users to choose avatars, roam virtual spaces using their avatars, and to interact with other meeting attendees simply by bringing their avatars closely together. It also allows the host to design different rooms such as break rooms, conference rooms and private spaces As our event was James Bond-themed, the virtual rooms we created represented different movies in the James Bond franchise, because let’s face it: who doesn’t love a bit of 007? Our rooms included the Thunderball Room, Goldfinger Room, Skyfall Room, the Casino Royale, and the Spectre Room, with each room fulfilling a different purpose for our event.

RECAP of Day 1 of “For Your Science Only” Event

On Thursday the 1st of July, we kicked off the event with a presentation from plenary speaker Krzysztof Pyrc (Jagiellonian University) about SARS-CoV-2 research within OrganoVIR.

Screenshot of Event Participants at Krzysztof’s Speech

Following that, our network members gathered in the Casino Royale for a quick coffee break, where they could interact with other network members or sit in one of the private spaces for a personal chat. Our ESRs even had a virtual dance party in the lobby!

Screenshot of OrganoVIR network Members During a Mini Dance Party

After the break, participants were divided into two groups to watch the poster presentations by our ESRS.

Screenshot of OrganoVIR Network Members Attending Emilia Durán’s Poster Presentation

RECAP of Day 2 of “For Your Science Only” Event

For the second day of the event, Ludovico Buti (Charles River) kicked off the event with a presentation on Host/Pathogen Interactions using Organoids.

Screenshot of OrganoVIR Network Members Attending Ludovico’s Speech

Following Ludo’s presentation, participants gathered in the Casino Royale for a quick break before proceeding to other rooms for the second day of poster presentations by our ESRs.

Screenshot of OrganoVIR Network Members Attending Andrew Barnhart’s Poster Presentation

To wrap up our “For Your Science Only” event, our network gathered at the Spectre room for the much-anticipated BondoVIR (James Bond & OrganoVIR themed) pub quiz – but not before returning to the Casino Royale for a quick gathering at the water fountain.

Screenshot of OrganoVIR Network Members in the Casino Royale

Overall, we had a great experience using Gather Town for our event. We are very proud of our ESRs for the amazing progress they’ve made in their projects and we are looking forward to hosting our next virtual event on Gather Town!