SRSM stands for the Society for Research Synthesis Methodology. The 11th annual meeting of the Society was held from 11th to 13th July 2016 in Florence, Italy.
I was able to attend the meeting as a guest, together with Shinichi, who is a member of the Society. It was a rather small and very collegial gathering, with around 40 people attending. The attendees represented a very broad spectrum of research fields and approaches to research synthesis, from theoretical to applied. Everybody was giving a talk and there were ample opportunities to chat and to get to know other people. On the first evening we a lovely banquet at the conference venue, on a hill overlooking Florence, wrapped in a Tuscan landscape. The second day ended with a guided city tour of Florence and a dinner at a local restaurant. And I had my talk on the third day, which was the last one and was packed with interesting and very interdisciplinary talks.
The real highlight of the meeting, for me, was being able to meet authors of the seminal papers and books on research synthesis methods (basically, the fathers and mothers of meta-analysis). It was also good to very enjoy nice food, and warm Italian summer, while escaping a bit of the chilly Sydney winter.