Last week I was in San Diego from Monday to Saturday. Monday through Thursday was spent at a work conference, then Friday and Saturday were spent with John enjoying San Diego. I’m going to write about my trip in two posts with Part 1 being about the work aspect of the trip.

The conference I attended was the annual PRIM&R (Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research) symposium entitled Advancing Ethical Research. PRIM&R has been around since 1974 and caters to the world of biomedical, social science, behavioral, and educational research. Their conferences address the latest ethical, regulatory, and policy-related developments in the field of research. My new job is in the area of human subjects research so I was really excited to go and sharpen my skills.

I spent the 6 hour flight embroidering a top secret Christmas present (and snacking).

When I arrived in San Diego I checked into the conference hotel, the Manchester Grand Hyatt. It was a beautiful hotel. I had amazing views of San Diego Bay and downtown from my room.

The sunset views at night were spectacular too.

I quickly got familiar with the hotel gym which was huge. While on the elliptical every day I was able to enjoy the view of the San Diego Bay and the USS Midway off in the distance (more on that in Part 2).

The conference was held in the San Diego Convention Center just a short walk from the hotel. The convention center was enormous and in a great location right on the water. It’s also the place where they hold Comicon every year!

The conference itself was full of conference-y things you’d expect: badges and professional clothes…

…keynotes speeches and poster presentations…

…detailed schedules and massive hordes of people.

The outdoor patio at the convention center was a great escape between sessions.

There were a lot of outdoor spaces at the convention center actually. With 60 degree days, I couldn’t complain!

To break up the monotony of the good old conference standard box lunch, I ventured out to Salad Style on Tuesday for a yummier option.

The conference was a lot of the same every day: interesting sessions, dressing like a business lady, and tea.

(Yup, that’s The Daily Show. There was a video montage of research ethics issues raised in pop culture. It was kind of awesome.)

Overall, the conference was really informative and I met some great people. You can imagine how happy I was when the conference was over though, John flew out to meet me so we could make a little San Diego mini-vacation out of the trip!

Stay tuned for Part 2 when the real fun begins!