10th Annual BTS Lectures 2012

[Ray Hale]

Hi all just got back from the 10th Annual BTS Lectures at Bristol.

Awesome weekend, great lectures, beer, good company and beer.
Serioulsy thanks to Mark and Kim for organising the event. Eddy for his Brachypelma vagans lecture, Marie-Louise Celerier for her Stromatopelma lecture. A lady of immense knowledge and personality. Brent Hendrixson from the USA for his ground breaking research on Aphonopelma and Andrew Smith for his Cambodian trip lecture.

It was great to see so many old friends and meet some new ones.


See you next year.

Ray Hale

[Leon Lane]

My first lectures in about 5 or 6 years I think - thoroughly enjoyed it. Great to meet some old friends, some of whom I've not seen in some years, and meet new people too. Who's idea was it to stay up drinking until 4am?

PS please note my new user group Mr Hale <-----

[Mike_Strick]

An excellent weekend. Fascinating lectures, excellent company and particularly good food this year. Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make it happen.

Mike

[James Box]

had a great time! the lectures were all brilliant and interesting. it's worth saying that as an Aphonopelma lover that of course Brent's lecture had to be my favourite, but i really enjoyed Marie-Louise's fascinating talk on Stromatopelma and all the nomenclature confusion she encountered as well as the history Lamto and the spiders they found there. Eddie came through with another great lecture on Mexico's wonderful spiders, including that great little turret building Aphono.

i've always enjoyed Andrew Smith's talks (don't tell him, it'll only encourage him) as well, but this was hands down my favourite so far. it was interesting to hear about the eating of tarantulas and the large numbers in which they are collected before it's necessary to move to a new area. it was hinted this isn't sustainable, but the fact they did find spiders still in "emptied" areas that were fully capable of repopulating the area with just a few eggsacks was encouraging.
there were plenty of spiders pictured as well, some lovely Haplowhatsits as well as Chilobrachys (my favourite Asian genus for years).

Brent's lecture on the way they're going about sorting the Aphonopelma out was great! loads of lovely pictures of these "boring" "brown" spiders as well. i found his presentation entertaining as well as very informative!

as always the social part was a huge treat. it was great getting to know new friends and old better over the hotel's amazing food.

this event is so much fun...if people don't go, they seriously miss out. it's worth saving up for. there's even plenty for non spider people to do with a pool and hot tub on the premises.

huge thanks to Mark and Kim Pennell for putting this on and making it so much fun!