[Schedule](https://gccbosc2018.sched.com/) | [Conf PDF](https://depot.galaxyproject.org/hub/attachments/events/gccbosc2018/gccbosc2018-printed-program.pdf) | [Training](/events/gccbosc2018/training/) | [Keynotes](/events/gccbosc2018/keynotes/) | [CoFest](/events/gccbosc2018/collaboration/) | [Register](/events/gccbosc2018/register/) | [Venue](/events/gccbosc2018/venue/) | [Sponsors](/events/gccbosc2018/sponsors/) | [Conduct](/events/gccbosc2018/code-of-conduct/) | [FAQ](/events/gccbosc2018/faq/) | [Promotion](/events/gccbosc2018/promotion/) | [Org](/events/gccbosc2018/organizers/)

**June 25-30, Portland, Oregon, United States**

**[Registration](/events/gccbosc2018/register/)    •    [Housing](/events/gccbosc2018/venue/)    •    [Childcare](/events/gccbosc2018/childcare/)    •    [Schedule](https://gccbosc2018.sched.com/)**

[#GCCBOSC](https://twitter.com/hashtag/gccbosc) / [Chat](https://gitter.im/GCC-BOSC-2018/)

Breaking the Ice @ GCCBOSC 2018

GCCBOSC will be bigger than any BOSC or GCC before it. This creates more opportunities to learn from each other and for collaboration. However, it can also be daunting: The bigger the meeting, the harder it is to maintain the interactive and collaborative feel that past BOSCs and GCCs have successfully cultivated.

To help alleviate this situation we are pleased to announce the first ever GCCBOSC Icebreaker, sponsored by Advanced HPC.

The details

When you check in you'll be given a sheet with ~15 questions on it. Each question will require you to find a fellow GCCBOSC 2018 participant who meets a certain requirement. Everyone's sheet will have a mix of easy to difficult questions, and each sheet will have a different set of questions. Some examples:

• Someone who is presenting a demo (easier)
• Someone who has never attended BOSC or GCC before (harder)

You'll also be given a sheet with ~15 stickers with your name on them. Your task is to find someone for each of your questions and to get a sticker from them. This may involve swapping stickers, some horse trading, or outright bribery.

Sheets are due before the last session starts on Thursday afternoon. At the conference closing we will randomly draw a winner from all successfully completed entries.

Drum roll please ...

Thanks to a sponsorship from Advanced HPC the selected winner will receive a brand new Oculus Rift virtual reality system.*

Everyone else will just have to settle for knowing more people, and having an expanded network of colleagues and collaborators.

So, get out there and start connecting!

Advanced HPC

In addition to providing cool stuff for cool conferences, Advanced HPC also provides life science companies and institutions with leading-edge, customized high performance computing (HPC) solutions.

* Useful in your research! (Which, you know, is actually possible.)