In October 2022, I was lucky to be encouraged by my research team to attend the Nextflow Summit and Hackathon in Barcelona. I wanted to improve my skills at the Hackathon, and meet the peeps behind the Nextflow pipelines that are open-source and community-driven. This was the occasion to meet my colleague Chris Wyatt too. It was an incredibly valuable experience, both for the technical skills I gained and the connections I made with other professionals in the field.

talk The Nextflow Summit dinner included neat logos on walls and beer bottles

The Hackathon was particularly memorable for me. I was struck by the team spirit within the nf-core community and the way everyone worked together to build and improve pipelines. It was exciting to see the updates being made in real time and to be a part of the collaborative process. This felt very inclusive for all levels of skills. There were lots of socials, such as making our own tapas à la Great British Bake Off. And swag!! I was super happy to share the apron, stickers and other goodies at our lab meeting back in London.

I now feel more comfortable in asking questions on Slack having met the core team. I also understand how pipelines can be build and twigged. Chris and I have now implemented more Nextflow structures in our lab and university, including the config file for our HPC.

I would encourage everyone to join the next Hackathon. It is running in end of March 2023 near you, and you can even take part in the workshop the week before. Try it for yourself; and meet people who are making the magic.

The Summit was also a great opportunity for me. I was able to make new connections with industry professionals and learn about the ways in which Nextflow is being used in real-world applications, particularly in medical and rare disease research. It was inspiring to hear Solenne Correard and her team who focused on including all patients, of all genetic background, in the research. It is fascinating to hear about the impact that these pipelines are having on improving patient care and advancing scientific discovery.

The Nextflow Summit and Hackathon was a fantastic learning experience and I am grateful for the opportunity to attend. I am excited to put what I learned into practice and to continue being a part of the nf-core community. I can already see the challenges for institutions and start-ups alike to maintain knowledge of existent pipelines.