I was scheduled to present my paper on day 2 of the conference. I was initially only allocated a 20 minute slot, and it was going to be quite challenging to condense everything I needed to cover into that time. Luckily, another presenter dropped out and I was allocated an extra 10 minutes, giving me 25 minutes for the presentation and 5 minutes for questions. That made everything much less rushed and in the event the presentation went smoothly and got a good reception, particularly from the other cosmologists in the audience. It helped that I was sticking my neck out by making a prediction that could be proved or disproved within the next couple of years. Not many professional scientists are willing to do that.
In the evening we had the conference banquet and by chance I ended up sitting next to two of the most eminent bloggers in the physics world, whose output is read by thousands of readers worldwide. I had been familiar with their work for some time and knew of them by name, so it was good to have the opportunity to meet them in person.
The topics on the final day got ever more obscure and I have to say that I followed very little of what was said. The final session provided the opportunity for the invited speakers and Nobel Laureates to give their views about what would be the most significant developments in physics in years to come. Perhaps not surprisingly, they felt unable to predict the future!
Certainly the conference was well worth while from my point of view, event though many of the topics were beyond me, mainly because of the opportunity to talk to other researchers and exchange ideas. Next year's FFP is to be held in
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