I have just spent 3 days in Austin, Texas in preparation for GHGT-12, with our hosts The University of Texas at Austin. I had the pleasure of visiting the conference venue- a spectacular conference centre which lives up to the 'everything is larger in Texas' perception. With the entire South side of the venue to accommodate the GHGT-12 conference, we will have 2 floors of presentation rooms, a ljosirt airy poster room combined with the lunch venue. I was also able to visit the prospective dinner venue, which for now I will leave as a surprise!

Austin is known as the capitol of live music of the world and the weekends either side of the GHGT-12 conference will host the Austin City Limits Music Festival with plenty of free events around the city, what better reason could you need to extend your stay? This will of course mean that accommodation on these dates will book quickly, we will be releasing accommodation information early to ensure you have the chance to secure a room for the duration of your stay.

Having stood on stage in Kyoto and encouraged everyone to come to Austin to see the largest urban population of bats emerge at sunset from under Congress Avenue bridge, well what else could I do but take my own advice and join the throngs of people lining the river, the banks and the bridge itself and witness the spectacle of not only a beautiful sunset, but also 3.2 million bats leave the safety of the underside of the bridge and head out to feed – just don't stand downwind!

Austin is a very welcoming, friendly city with much to do, so combine this with the ambitious technical programme of the GHGT-12 conference and it becomes an event not to be missed. Watch out for the call for papers will opening September this year.