First day at the British Beekeepers Association Spring Convention at Harper Adams University, Shropshire, UK. Attended by some 2,000 or so people, this is a three day event with a lecture programme ranging from beginner beekeepers talks to the very scientific, this year with speakers from the UK, USA, Greece, Spain, Ireland and Italy, workshops on a variety of practical topics, and a one day trade show. Several members of the INSIGNIA Consortium have given talks at the conference over the last few years. Today Norman Carreck gave a talk about “science for the beekeeper” showing the importance of using the results of bee research to improve our understanding of bee biology, and hence to help the beekeeper to understand bee behaviour and improve our beekeeping. He used as an example the COLOSS CSI Pollen project and introduced the new INSIGNIA project to the audience. Two of the UK beekeeper volunteers who will be talking part this season are present at the convention.