Blogging NI2006. The 9th International Congress on Nursing Informatics. Seoul, Korea June 2006

The conference Gala Dinner was held on the Tuesday evening (when Korea were playing their first match in the worldcup). The dinner was soup, salad, steak and a mouse & quite pleasant (although they had problems with deleagtes who were vegetarian or on Gluten free diets etc). The wine (possibly rice wine) didn’t taste too good to some western palates & alternative wine/beer had to be purchased at high prices.

Several foreign delegates and many of the Koreans wore national dress and paraded and danced, including a dance around the entire hall, there was also professional entertainment from drummers and a Korean Jazz Band. In the foyer was a large ice sculpture containing the logo of the conference.

The dinner was quite restrained in comparison with some similar events and many delagtes had left before the finish time of 22.00 (which was also kick off for the football.

NI2006, Gala

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Following Roy’s keynote presentation the conference has now really got under way with over 700 delegates and 6 or seven parrallel sessions taking place at anytime - therefore your conference bloggers can only report on a few of the papers! If anyone else can offer comments on he other presentations please sign up so that you can post your reports on here for others to read.

There are various exhibitors with stands in the foyer area, where coffee is served, and which seems to be serving as a general chatting area. Also around the conference centre, generally on balconies etc are a range of posters exhibiting work from all over the world which seem to be attracting lots of interest from the delegates.

NI2006, posters

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On the friday evening I met up with several colleagues from the British contingent who had just arrived at the Prince Hotel and went out for a Japanese meal and then found a bar with a large screen to watch the first England match in the world cup.

On Saturday we went on a tour visiting various historic sites and markets.

We started at Gyeongbokgung the main and largest palace of the Joseon Dynasty, and the National Folk Museum of Korea which is located on the same site.

Later in the day we visited another temple from the same period at Changdeokgung and visited the secret garden.Other visits on the trips included the Amethyst and Ginseng Museums and antiques and tourist markets.

Generally the day provided some insights into the city of Seoul, although I felt a bit rough (possibly due to dehydration, lack of sleep and caffine withrawl) and wasn’t able to sample much of the lunch provided as part of the tour.

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There are only a few days left now until the start of the conference & the volume of messages about events that will be happening eg national dress at the gala dinner & the programme of workshops, papers and tutorials are coming in thick and fast. I just need to finish the preapartion for my bits before heading for the airport. I look forward to seeing many old and new friends - & if you have read this blog please come & say hello to the blog (& podcast & vodcast) team.

Rod

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