Hello GCC2016 Participants! This email contains what you need to know between now and the start of GCC2016 events this weekend: - Conference check-in - Getting to Bloomington - Lodging check-in - Training: Required software - Training: Office hours - Call for BoFs - Announced BoFs - Hackathons - Sponsors See you in Bloomington! The GCC2016 Exec Carrie Ganote, Chris Hemmerich, Dave Clements, Marilyne Summo, and Robert Ping *Before you leave* Be prepared and pack for temperatures as high as 92F (33C) and as low as 58F (14C). Expect a mix of sunshine and rain in the next week. *Getting to Bloomington*If you are flying into Indianapolis International Airport, there are two shuttle companies that provide transport to Bloomington: 1. GO Express Travel <http://goexpresstravel.com/airport_shuttle_schedule#schedule> This service stops at the IMU and the Wilkie Residence Hall. The last shuttle leaves the airport at 10:40pm. 2. Star of America Shuttle <http://www.soashuttle.com/locations/bloomington-to-indianapolis/> This service stops at the IMU. If you are staying at the Wilkie Residence Hall, the closest stop is Read Hall. The last shuttle leaves the airport at 10:20pm. See the online map <http://bit.ly/gcc2016map> for building locations. *Conference check-in* Please stop by the conference desk to pick up your badge, program, and other conference materials. You’ll need that badge to attend GCC2016 events. The conference desk will be open at these times: Fri 6–9:00pm, East Lounge, main level, Indiana Memorial Union (IMU) Sat 9am–9pm, Lobby, Wells Library Sun 8am–9pm, Conference Room, main level, IMU Mon 8am–6pm, Conference Room, main level, IMU 6:45–9pm, Lobby, Cyberinfrastructure Building, during opening reception Tue 8am–6pm, Alumni Hall, first floor, IMU Wed 8am–6pm, Alumni Hall, first floor, IMU See the online map <http://bit.ly/gcc2016map> for building locations. *Lodging check-in* The Indiana Memorial Union Biddle Hotel and Conference Center desk is open 24 hours. The Wilkie Residence Hall center desk is located in the North Building and is open 8am–midnight on weekdays and 10am–midnight on weekends. If you arrive after hours, please push the black button on the phone outside the residence hall. Punch in 6-4804 (will be posted by the phone) and the staff member on duty will come right down to help. Upon check-in at either facility, you will receive a welcome letter that includes the conference/registration desk schedule and a few other details. For those arriving before Saturday, see the special Friday conference desk hours above, they are not listed in your welcome letter. Parking is free at both the IMU (in designated parking lots) and at Wilkie in designated parking lots (request a parking pass for CH spots at the Wilkie center desk). *Be kind to your fellow attendees:* If you are staying at the IMU and don’t have a car, please ask for a parking permit anyway. Bring this permit with you to the conference check-in desk. We’ll offer the permits up to attendees who need parking but aren’t staying at the IMU. *Training: Required software* GCC2016 training <https://gcc16.sched.org/overview/type/D.1+Training+-+Using> starts on Sunday and continues on Monday. There are 31 sessions offered over the two days. See your registration confirmation email for the training sessions you signed up for. Many of the training sessions require specific software installed on your laptop to fully participate in them. *Practically every session requires a Wi-Fi enabled laptop with either Chrome <https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop/> or Firefox <https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/> installed.* If you don’t have either of these web browsers installed, please install at least one of them before training starts. These Deploy and Develop sessions <https://gcc16.sched.org/overview/type/D.3+Training+-+Deploy+%26+Develop> require that you have a running copy of the conference virtual machine (VM) <https://images.galaxyproject.org/planemo/latest.ova>: - Writing and publishing Galaxy tools <http://sched.co/5Y5Z> - Introduction to Galaxy interactive environments <http://sched.co/5Y5e> - Advanced topics in Galaxy tool development <http://sched.co/5Yg5> - Advanced topics in Galaxy interactive environments <http://sched.co/5Yvk> - Scripting Galaxy using the API and BioBlend <http://sched.co/5Yzl> - BioinforMagic: Marrying Galaxy and Bioconductor <http://sched.co/5VsB> If you are participating in any of these sessions, please follow these directions <http://planemo.readthedocs.io/en/latest/appliance.html#launching-the-appliance-virtualbox-ova> to download and install the VM in VirtualBox <http://planemo.readthedocs.io/en/latest/appliance.html#launching-the-appliance-virtualbox-ova>. If you don’t already have VirtualBox on your laptop, you will need to install that too. *Note that the VM is large (over 3GB). We encourage you to download the image <https://images.galaxyproject.org/planemo/latest.ova> before leaving for the conference, if at all possible.* A few other sessions also require some installed software. The instructors for these sessions will contact participants directly. *Training: Office hours* To help people get set up in advance, there will be a training office hour session the night before each day of training. Drop by if you want help installing and configuring required software, or just to check that everything is working. The two training office hours sessions will be Saturday, 7–10pm Sunday, 8:30–9:30pm Both sessions will be in the Hoosier room on the main level of the IMU, which is just down the hall from where the training sessions will be held the following day. Our goal is to have everyone ready to go when the first training session starts each morning. And, if you are VM, VirtualBox, Docker, or generally systems proficient, think about stopping by and lending a hand. *Call for BoFs* Birds-of-a-feather (BoF) meetups <https://gcc16.sched.org/overview/type/E.6+Birds-of-a-feather> are informal gatherings at GCC where attendees with a shared interest meet to discuss their interests and challenges. *If you have an idea for a BoF, post it here <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1aikQugTW_VlY5K0TQ3cI9E2NVIk443gkzK6EqP8gsr4/viewform>*. The conference will provide space and make sure that attendees get the word. BoFs will be added to the conference schedule website <https://gcc16.sched.org/overview/type/E.6+Birds-of-a-feather> as they come in, and BoF meeting times will be assigned in the coming weeks. Last year's BoFs spanned a wide range of topics and were highly recommended in the conference evaluations. Let’s outdo ourselves again this year. *Announced BoFs* Three BoFs have already been added to the conference. Locations and times for these three will be set before training starts on Sunday. 1. European Galaxy developer school <http://sched.co/7Vi5> TBA A developer school is planned to open in January 2017, in Strasbourg (France), organized by Elixir (European bioinformatics HUB) and the French Institute of Bioinformatics (the Elixir French national node). This BoF is a discussion on which training modules to propose. Sign up now <http://sched.co/7Vi5>. 2. Application containers for the win! <http://sched.co/7UVB> Monday, June 27, 11:30am-12:30pm *Application portability conundrum of Galactic proportions.* Using application containers for portability, especially overcoming Toolshed build issues. The wonderful, but checkered history of Toolshed distribution of galaxy tools has had its share of delights and frustrations, the latter often attributed to Linux distribution issues, but nevertheless big time sinks. While a lot of work in the Galaxy ecosystem is being done towards Dockerizing everything some sites have no opportunity to run Docker. Let's talk about some other possibilities focused on the application portability to try to make toolshed tool distribution as painless as possible. Sign up now <http://sched.co/7UVB>. 3. GalaxyAdmins <http://sched.co/7KLn> Tuesday, June 28, 12:40pm-1:40pm The GalaxyAdmins community <https://wiki.galaxyproject.org/Community/GalaxyAdmins> meets in person every year at GCC and online every other month during the rest of the year. If you administer a Galaxy instance, please help shape the future direction of the group and to set action items for the coming year. Sign up now <http://sched.co/7KLn>. *Hackathons* Coding and data hackathons <https://gcc2016.iu.edu/hacks/index.php> start on Saturday morning. Hackathon organizers will be in direct contact with you on Saturday and Sunday morning to let you know what to do in preparation for these events. *Sponsors* Conference sponsors <https://gcc2016.iu.edu/sponsors/index.php> are key partners in the Galaxy community and are absolutely vital in making event registration affordable. In acknowledgement, we are highlighting different sponsors in each email. ​ *Developing versatile storage solutions for Life Sciences* *EMC*’s Emerging Technologies Division (ETD) is a global leader and trusted partner in Life Science storage solutions. We deliver powerful yet versatile solutions for healthcare and Life Science organizations that want to efficiently manage clinical and genomics data. EMC storage solutions are simple to install, manage, and scale, at any size, across the R&D data lifecycle. As a leader and trusted partner of Life Science organizations worldwide, EMC storage solutions provide the security, ease of management, resilience, and scalability needed to manage Life Science workflows today and in the future. For more information, please visit our Life Sciences information page <http://www.emergingtechsolutions.com/life-science>. ​ The *Bloomington Life Sciences Partnership (BLSP) <http://www.bloomingtonedc.com/>* is an economic development initiative that is part of a larger effort to attract innovation, cultivate entrepreneurship, and support business growth in the greater Bloomington region. The BLSP program, part of the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation (BEDC), is a non-profit initiative dedicated to improving the economic vitality of the region and fostering creativity, job growth, and better opportunities for all. If you have a startup idea, own a business, or are interested in supporting the growth of these things in Bloomington, please visit www.bloomingtonedc.com or call (812) 340-9058 to see how we can help. -- http://galaxyproject.org/ http://getgalaxy.org/ http://usegalaxy.org/ https://wiki.galaxyproject.org/