ISMB/ECCB is a great opportunity for us to meet with researchers who have published in our bioinformatics journals, such as BMC Bioinformatics and BMC Systems Biology. Many delegates were excited to see our new Impact Factor of 3.71 for BMC Systems Biology and the imminent launch of our latest independent journal, Journal of Biomedical Semantics.

Perhaps the biggest highlight of our time at the conference was the Sudoku challenge on Thursday morning where delegates raced each other to finish a Sudoku puzzle in the fastest time to win a Nintendo DS. For the three days leading up to the event various delegates had guaranteed that they had what it takes to win the prize but there could only be one winner. Crowds started to gather as early as 9.30am with competitors keen to locate the best possible spot to take the challenge. By 10am a 30-strong crowd took over the BioMed Central stand all eager to win the Nintendo DS though it is fair to say that some participants (possibly students) were more interested in receiving free notepads.