“Do you want to go for a run at 6:45 am?”

My friend had come to my poster and stood waiting for my answer.

“No,” was my only response.

I am not the best morning person, though I do love to run. I finished up my poster presentation and we wandered around the rest of the conference center among some of the vendor exhibits. Then I saw a familiar name over one of the booths. Larodan is a company based in Sweden and we buy many of our polyunsaturated fatty acid compounds from them to do our experiments. Excited to see a company that I recognized, we walked over to their booth to so I could introduce myself as one of their customers. The next thing I know, two friendly guys in Larodan sweaters were asking me if I wanted to go for a run at 6:45 am on Tuesday. Caught up in their enthusiasm, we signed up to join the jog before leaving to go to another symposium.

Tuesday morning rolled around we found ourselves walking through the very brisk air towards the conference center to meet up with the jogging group, surprisingly excited to set out (despite the shockingly chilly temperature and the early hour).  Networking can take many different forms, but I definitely didn’t expect to find it in an early morning 5K jog through downtown San Francisco. Running with Larodan has easily been one of the highlights of the biophysics meeting. A troop of bright yellow shirts took off down the streets and to the pier where we took in the view of the Bay Bridge as the sun was rising up over the city. The group of runners was an energetic crowd, all happy to get out and stretch our legs and get out blood pumping.

The opportunity to connect with Carl and Fredrik, who are the operations and managing directors at Larodan, was a valuable and fun experience. They’re eager to get to know everyone who happens to swing past their booth and answer questions about the company and the lipids they supply. One of the nicest things about the Annual Biophysical Society meeting is the ability to put faces and personalities to the companies that supply the reagents necessary to do our research.

So if you’re looking for a new activity, stop by the Larodan booth and see what they have in store.

--Briana Watkins