Quote: “Its not what you know but who you know”
Said by many across multiple cultures
Today we review:
The Aging Research and Drug Discovery Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark
The Dublin Longevity Summit in Dublin, Ireland
3 Plugs
- keep moving until you find your place and your people
- go to places where you can be useful and contribute
- try not to lose what makes you, you along the way.
Hallmarks of Both Conferences
- I highly recommend attending both of these events (and conferences in general)
- Europe was a blast. People are out and about. The downtowns I went to were generally flourishing
- Work Hard Play Hard – Lots of lectures, lots of late nights at the bar
- All Day Every Day
- Leaders in the field of Longevity Research (highly research focussed)
- Research Focused, Less Clinical (but still some clinical content)
- Startups and Funding/Funders was a big focus
- Eccentric Personalities
- Lots of Fun! Met a lot of great people
Dublin Longevity Summit
- Fun location in the center of Dublin. Good Pubs, nightlife, landmarks (St. Patricks Cathedral). 3-4/5 stars.
- 4 days, all day
- Very interesting mix of researchers, companies looking for money, angels/VCs/other funders, crypto people, computer scientists, real estate developers, etc. I like the mix
- very interesting breadth of research. I really appreciate the focus on longevity in other species on the last day (bats,
- GALA was a blast, “legendary”. Great performance by Irish Dancers. Dancing was a great time. A lot of fun going out with everyone to the techno basement club after. Partying with your favorite longevity stars.
- free food and drinks made for great value, thanks sponsors
- Aubrey d Gray, one of the main orchestraters, seems a lot like the Dumbledor of Longevity. Kept things interesting at all times.
- I saw speakers that that led me to ARDD. One good conference leeds to another
- met some really great people that are now my friends
Dublin Improvements
- The first half day of lectures was really weak. Companies presenting seemed very unprepared and felt unorganized. Start and end with a key note
- more forced socialization and interactive activities during the day
- bar could go later at night
- more time for questions after lectures (maybe pack in a few less lectures)
- providing slides to attendees should be mandatory
- some big names weren’t there, but many were
Aging Research and Drug Discovery, ARDD
- Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen in a prime location. 5/5 city, location, and lecture hall. Incredible lecture hall
- 5 full days
- Most well-known longevity leaders in the field presented. Steve Horvath, Vadim Gladyshev, Brian Kennedy, Nir Barzilai, David Sinclair, so many more.
- food and drinks were a tremendous value. Actually good food. Bar 7 open nightly until like 2am with free beers and wine. Incredible networking opportunity every night.
- lectures were good overall. I kept joking it should be the OCDD conference. Omics, Clocks, and Drug Discovery.
- Packed in a ton of stuff
- Intense emotions and excitement when one of the organizers proposed on stage to his unsuspecting future bride. High pressure situation and very unexpected.
- Really enjoyed when Nir Barzilai got really mad at an epidemiologist that was hating on metformin as a longevity drug.
ARDD Improvements
- more time for questions
- more forced social interaction during the day
- tandem lectures from the different tracks was a bit confusing as a first time guest. Monk celler was hard to sit in after being in the main lecture hall as well.
- wished they would have leaned into the controversy – Goes for Dublin too. More debates. More hard questions. More challenging of speakers.
Highly Recommend Both Conferences
- More opportunity for clinician involvement. These people could use more people actually performing medicine to come in and rain on their parade.
- Big thanks to ARDD organizers (Morten Scheibye-Knudson, Alex Zhavoronkov, Daniela Bakula) and Dublin Longevity Summit organizers (Martin O ‘Dea and Aubrey D Gray) for 2 great events
Big lessons go to places and people where you fit in and can be of use. If a place isn’t right. Move. Keep moving until you find your people and your place. I found 2 great places and a bunch of great people at these conferences. Check them out in 2025.
References
- Dublin Longevity Summit. https://longevitysummitdublin.com/
- more data rich episodes to come, I promise!
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