Re: WAS Conference 2014
This year's conference is composed of three sections:
• The 2nd International Workshop on Hive and Bee Monitoring on Wednesday, September 17,
• WAS Conference Speakers, Thursday and Friday, September 18 and 19,
• Saturday Morning Workshops covering a variety of practical topics of interest to beekeepers and geared especially for those folks who cannot get away to attend the earlier events.
The 2nd International Workshop on Hive and Bee Monitoring involves several speakers from far distant parts -- New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Italy etc. It kicks off the "Week of the Bee" at the University of Montana in Missoula and contains a candy shop of technological goodies for all those so inclined.
Keynote speaker on Thursday of the WAS conference is our own Dr. Eric Mussen, now retired from UC-Davis but still the bee guru of choice for half the world. He'll be talking about what has changed in beekeeping during his professional lifetime. You know him - entertaining, informative, plain spoken and easy for anyone to understand, be they beginner beekeepers or ones with decades of experience.
The Friday keynote is something different, and something of enormous interest to all of us. G. Philip Hughes, Senior Director of the White House Writers Group of Washington, D.C.; Former Ambassador and White House National Security Aide for Presidents Robert Reagan and George H.W. Bush, will address the neonicotinoid pesticides and bees debate, giving a play-by-play of how this issue has been and is being played out. He will highlight the issues being ignored, misstated or oversimplified along the way by the media and politicians. He will also address the role of journalists in ‘muddying’ rather than clarifying the waters, as well as the recent involvement of the White House in honey bee and pollinator health and protection.
I have exactly ONE hive more than you.
That makes my opinion beyond question.