This was my first BSG conference, and I hope it won’t be my last. Due to financial support from an Otago University PhD travel fund, I was privileged to be able to travel to the UK and present a paper at this year’s BSG conference in Bristol. I also had the opportunity to travel for a month in England, Scotland and France, before heading to Germany where I presented a further paper at another conference. This month has therefore held both intellectual stimulation, personal leisure, and sightseeing opportunities for me before I launch into the final stages of my PhD work.

I found the BSG conference to be very welcoming from the outset. Sadly the weather was very wet, but this did not detract from the friendly and intimate atmosphere of the conference itself. Everyone was so approachable, and I was able to wander up to and speak with people whose names I knew well from their writings. We are quite isolated in New Zealand, in the sense that we often have to travel such a long way to meet and mingle with leading scholars and academics in social gerontology. Likewise, the social gerontology network in New Zealand is small, and so it has been both refreshing and stimulating to be part of such a larger group, all of whom have similar interests and ways of looking at the study of older people.

This was a particularly exciting aspect of the conference for me – meeting the likes of Bill Bytheway, Julia Johnson, Joanna Bornat, Julia Twigg, Christina Victor, and Barbara Bowers to name just a few. To meet these people ‘in the flesh’! They and others were very generous with their time and knowledge, and freely gave out references and ideas to assist me in my own study and research. This informal aspect of the conference was a bonus which complemented an array of riveting presentations; so many, in fact, that it was often hard to choose which to attend. It was wonderful to hear such cutting edge research from the social gerontology world, and then – over breaks, meal times and the conference dinner – have the chance to chat and make further connections.

Another key aspect of the conference which I particularly enjoyed was the book stalls. The Open University Press and others offered an array of pertinent, recent work in the social gerontology field. Again, we do not have the same immediate, ‘hands on’ access to such specialised academic books in New Zealand. Not only did my credit card take a hammering, but I even had to send a number of books back due to airline weight restrictions!

I enjoyed the international flavour of the conference with scholars from Ireland, Canada, the United States, Finland, etc. It is fascinating to hear about what research is going on in the UK, as well as these other countries both in terms of their similarities and their differences. This also creates important opportunities for potential collaboration, international comparisons and ongoing contact beyond the conference itself.

In conclusion, the conference provided an important and for me a rare opportunity to immerse myself in such an international academic environment. The conference reaffirmed and reinvigorated my own commitment and passion for social gerontology, as I met with and listened to so many others in such an inspirational, supportive and collegial environment. My warm thanks to the organising committee for the superb job they did in creating the context and content for such an event.