I just returned from PEARC19 in beautiful Chicago (the image above is from my hotel window). I’ve never been to Chicago in the winter, so my impressions are only based on literally perfect summer weather - but what an awesome city.

I made the trip to PEARC19 with a primary focus: advertise and promote the US-RSE. I brought 2,000 US-RSE stickers (note to self, don’t bring that many on an airplane again). After that, my goal was the same as any other conference: I went to talk to and learn from as many other people as possible.

I like the PEARC conference for the same reason I don’t like it: it’s small. It’s likely you’ll bump into everyone there at least once. If the people you’re looking to connect with are there, it’s perfect. If they aren’t, then you are likely to be disappointed. I don’t think there is another conference that has as many academic research computing professionals together in a single place. SC is close but much, much, bigger.

My biggest takeaways from PEARC19:

• We’re on to something with US-RSE. The word is spreading organically and it’s well received.
• We have to work on our RSE definition and branding.
• I need to follow XSEDE’s ECSS program more closely
• The Princeton RSE Group is held in high esteem and I’m incredibly lucky to be here.

OK. Let’s be honest. This recap turned out to be about as exciting as 3-day-old bread. I’ll try harder next time…