The Royal Pavillion made in a style which - if nothing else - makes it quite unique

A long bench

The Brighton Dome - the main venue of TNC

One of the tracks takes place in the Unitarian Church, just across the street

People arriving - it is always exciting getting started with a new edition of TNC

The lively decorated main exhibition hall

This morning I went to a session on the lessons learned by GÉANT from putting together the bid for EuroHPC hypercon.

At the podium we find the all-purpose trouble shooter Annabel Grant

and her boss, Paul Rouse. It is indisputable that they have done a tremendous piece of work - no matter what the outcome of the whole thing will end up being.

At the other end of the room, the ECHO committee shared their experiences and perspctives of the future where responding to calls fo tender as a community may happen again.

The room was filled to the last chair - and beyond.

GÉANT CFO Alex de Leeuw

GÉANT board member and NIAC chairman Ronan Byrne (who also has a dayjob as CEO of HEAnet)

Boris Dintrans is CEO of RENATER, and we were told that contributed in particular with expertise in HPC, as he was for many years director of en HPC centre

Bram Peeters, the head of Network at GÉANT

Enzo Capone and Cathrin Stö:ver in the audience

Throughout the programme, a lot also goes on at the community hub. In this break, it is an informal meeting on procurement

The TNC opening session...

Featuring a gender-balanced band

and the welcome speech from the GÉANT CEO, Lise Fuhr,

Followed by a warm welcome from the head of the local host organization , Heidi Krauss, CEO of Jisc

The opening keynote speech by Jess Auerbach Jahajeeah about the physical aspects of the internet, mainly as seen from a cable repair ship and the men operating it

and challenging what is the majority and minority view of the world, global north and south.

Next item was the community awards, presented by the new head of the GCC, Charlie van Genuchten (Surf)

The first awardee was Ronan Byrne, HEAnet for his many contributions to the community

The presentation of the next awardee...

Nicole Harris from GÉANT for her many roles in the community as well as for her unrelenting efforts for a better gender balance in all aspects of our work. Also well deserved!

Finally, a word about the Vietsch Foundation and award of the Vietsch medal by John Dyer

In the support of URAN, the Ukranian NREN, during the war, the Vietsch foundation has been instrumental in channeling the NREN contributions to URAN. Thanks to all contributors and take this as an appeal to donate more. The war continues.

The Vietsch medal goes to...

Cathrin Stöver for her long service to the community in many roles - from Africa to EOSC and everything in between.

Cathrin was clearly moved by this.

Thanks to the sponsors. Their contributions are also essential for TNC. Remember to visit them in the exhibition area!

A very good and innovative basic introduction to the venue was made in this short video

...starring Kamila Duvanaeva from GÉANT

People@TNC: Ishita Majumdar and Marina de Giorgi from GÉANT

Eliakim Okundi from UbuntuNet (based in Malawi)

The NORDUnet booth

Suzi Byatt from GÉANT who, as you can see in the photo, has just run out of champagne

Some merchandise may appear to have strange connotations: Nokia delivers something that goes up and down whenever you use it

Or what about this one: eduroam socks!

Goran Škvarč (CARNET) and Enis Kocan (MREN)

Erik Huizer (now independent) and CFO of GÉANT Alex de Leeuw

Ariela Herček from AMRES in Slovenia, who does communication and marketing, among others

Olaf Schelderup from Sikt in sunny Norway

Ivana Golub (PSCC) and Claudia Battista (GARR)

Another guy from GARR (based in Milano): Filippo Landini who is an expert in network automation

Mario Reale (GÉANT) and Manuel Gerhardt (EUMETSAT)

At the communty hub, there is space for more interactive events in the breaks. This one was about diversity and inclusion and started with a US perspective given by Mike Erickson from Internet2

Charlie van Genchten from SURF

Helen Claire from Jisc

and Sarah Hughes from GÉANT

Sumithra Ulrika Velupillai from Sunet presenting the most daring and challenging fiber project over them all: Polar Connect

which I describe as such because I am responsible for one of the work packages

There is a question from the audience...

...which, unconventionally, is not answered by the person on stage, but by Ieva Muraskiene from NORDUnet, who, as project manager for the whole Polar Connect project knows the answer

Guido Aaben (SUNet) and Susanne Hodges (DeiC)

Juha Oinonen (NREN manager from CSC/Funet) and Martin Brandt from SURF who is working with the SURF Science cloud

Tryfon Chiotis from GÉANT should not require further introduction

The operation of the NORDUnet booth is in the capable hands of Stina Rudberg and Susanne Michelsen

More NORDUnet people: Jon Clausen, Lars Fischer and Ania Goscinna-Poulsen

And two of DeiC's finest: Mikkel Hald and Tangui Coulouarn

The next session, called Fast & Furious, is chaired by Anca Hienola (from the Finnish Meterological Institute)

and the first item is about EUMETCast, presented by two speakers, Rich Adam

and Ruth Britton

Ed Moynihan from Indiana University talking about the infrastructure behind the EHT (Event Horizon Telescope) which produced the first pictures of black holes

together with Jason SooHoo from the MIT Haystack Observatory.

Last speaker in this block is my esteemed colleague René Belsø from DeiC...

...talking about the most popular subject at this conference, judging from the number of programme items about it: fibre sensing

Normally, people make a point of looking their best in a profile picture, maybe even look freindly or have a little smile on their face. But not René

He actually looks better in real life, as you can see here

Kristine Andersone (CERT.LV) and Jón Ingi Einarsson (RHnet in Iceland)

High density coffe break

Featuring these two long-standing members of our community: Ronan Byrne and Brian Nisbet from HEAnet. And they are still standing.

Ed Moynihan (Indiana University), Alexander van den Hil and Sylvia Kuijpers, both from SURF.

Charlie van Genuchten (SURF), Lise Fuhr (GÉANT CEO) and communications officer from Belnet Davina Luyten

The Kick-Off Party takes place in the Shelter Hall at the beach

Drinks

Snacks are served

Live music

And lots of people. Here are for instance some of the very best SURFers: Ines Duits, Mark Cole and Lonneke Walk

The Finnish table - without napkin hats this time

Our good colleagues from Nokia

An here I pose with Lise Karstensen from Nokia

Peter Havekes (SURF) and Alessandro Distaso (SUNet)