Next week the 2016 Institute of Australian Geographers (IAG) annual conference will take place in Adelaide.

In between practicing my presentation based on some empirical findings (!) and playing with photographs of cycling adventures (see below slide) for my presentation, I have been packing for the trip. I'm never good at last minute packing so need to pack my bags a few days in advance, then re-pack before I leave, taking out things I won't end up needing. Some essentials will never make my cull list though and these are:

• business cards (thanks Mac Uni);
  
• lap top/notebook to type up any notes I write whilst at a conference (add a notepad and pens there too) - I can not read my own handwriting after a few days now;
  
• a book to read for pleasure - this is something I have been looking forward to since the end of the summer holidays and will be devouring every page I can;
  
• hand cream/face cream because sitting in a climate controlled room for four days dries you out;
  
• running shoes - for fast walks around the conference venue city or for jumping on an Adelaide free city bike and going for a spin!!!; and
  
• knitting ** not at all essential but is my back up in case I finish my book and it's raining.
  

Good morning from @ATRF2015

Today's program includes the poster session where PhD students, industry members and academics have the challenging task of first condensing/summarising a paper into one A0 sized poster and then presenting it briefly.

My poster is "Understanding Cycling Practices in Sydney: A Practice Approach". I'll be talking about how I use a practice lens to view cycling research in order to understand people's cycling practices in greater detail, and hypothesize about the insights that this approach can bring.

The 37th Australasian Transportation Research Forum is on this week in Sydney (September 30 to October 2). I'm polishing up my poster for Friday's poster session.

https://www.regodirect.com.au/atrf2015/home/

I love Fridays!

This week I've spent a lot of time thinking about cycling and talking to people who cycle.

Project developments include a stellar online survey response (100+ responses overnight!), interviews, transcription (on trains), and now some preliminary analysis on survey data.

In between moving house and writing I've begun interviewing for my project!

I am currently in the pilot phase of the interviews, where my participants give incredibly valuable feedback on the participation process and I sort out any little kinks before really ramping up into field work mode.

More updates when I officially launch field work and start seeking more participants.

P.S. The new house has much better access to cycle paths and is more convenient for impromptu rides so will start to blog about my own cycling.

The last day of IGC11 kicked off with a really interesting keynote presentation by Professor Eric Maigrit from Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris on New Materialiam in the Social Science.

Lots to think about today: sociosemiotocs, media representations, Japanization, learner self-concept, passenger services, adaptation of ancient Japanese texts, cultural security, Frames of China in overseas media, and Chinese news and print media.

Great to share and learn from PhD students from all over the world!

I wonder just how many bikes there are in Beijing. How many are sold each year? How many are electric bikes too?