The seminar: an afternoon to remember

Here are a couple of photos from Wednesday's seminar that were not so bad that they had to destroyed on sight. Above are Martijn de Lange (Netherlands Patent Office) and Jeffrey S. Boone (Covidien), both smiling despite the length of the queue for coffee during their well-earned break.

This is Judith Caldwell (Keltie, right), who was just in the process of taking possession of a newly innominate bear-mouse. The story behind this moving (still?) picture is as follows: IBC Informa conference organiser Catherine Watson, together with her friends Sarah Haynes and Katie Thorne, had decided to ascend Mont Blanc this August in order to raise funds for three charities: Breast Cancer Campaign, White Ribbon Alliance and Action for Children. To assist them in their fund-raising (their target is £15,000, with a little over £4,000 promised so far), the SPC Blog agreed to auction the cuddly toy depicted above.

The toy in question was provisionally named Monty the Mountain Bear (Monty being an allusion to 'Mont', the French word for a mountain), but after some consideration the trio felt that the toy might be a mouse rather an a bear. Noting the alliterative quality of Monty the Mountain Mouse they decided to rename him there and then.

At the seminar, Judith won a hard-fought auction battle and walked off with the bear, together with the large and handsome John Lewis plastic carrier bag which would enable her to carry it through the streets of Holborn without attracting too much attention. At a second auction, Rob Stephen (Olswang) acquired the renaming rights to the bear -- though he hasn't yet gone public with the creature's new identity.

If you'd like to know more about this effort, and/or wish to make a donation, you can do so via their website 3birds1mountain.com (GiftAid available for UK taxpayers).