This year’s meeting of ECMWF Computing Representatives took place from 23 to 25 October 2019 and was attended by 27 participants. The event included new interactive sessions and this aspect is expected to be strengthened further in future meetings.
Computing Representatives are appointed by ECMWF Member and Co‐operating States and meet regularly at the Centre to share experiences on computing services. They are points of contact for ECMWF and facilitate the information flow and various administrative transactions between the Centre and countries that have access to ECMWF’s computing services.
The programme of this year’s meeting included updates on ECMWF’s BOND (Bologna Our Next Data Centre) project, new services, and innovation projects, such as the European Weather Cloud. The participants appreciated two new interactive sessions: a live demonstration event to present the new services, and a ‘Meet the expert’ session where participants could ask questions and have face‐to‐face discussions with ECMWF experts. The participants gave short overviews of activities in their own countries, showcasing their new computing services, high‐ performance computing procurement processes and use of ECMWF’s computing facilities. This sharing session was valued as it allowed participants to discover each other’s activities and develop collaborations.
Finally, the participants offered feedback on the meeting itself and potential ways to improve the format. It was generally felt that the length of the meeting is appropriate, but participants would like to have longer interactive and ‘active’ sessions. Future meetings could feel more like a forum to encourage sharing and networking among participants and ECMWF experts. We look forward to welcoming our Computing Representatives next year.
Presentations from this year’s meeting are available at: https://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/who-we-are/representatives/computing-representatives.
