With four plenary speakers and twenty special symposia, as well as free communications and poster sessions, Manchester's brand-new conference centre, University Place, provided a superb and fitting venue for the proceedings.

At the opening ceremony, EPHAR's President, Professor Arthur Weston, urged all attendees to participate fully by asking provocative questions, by attending the 28 trade exhibits and generally giving the meeting a special sparkle. They responded magnificently and, together with the organising BPS team from Angel Gate and the Manchester postgraduate student helpers, four days of brilliant pharmacology were coupled with faultless organisation.

(lady) Lord Mayor in the city's historic Town Hall,the Wine-Tasting Evening organised by the postgraduates and the Congress Dinner at the Manchester United Football Club's International Suite. With Professor Thomas Griesbacher, EPHAR's Scientific Secretary as Master of Ceremonies, there were amusing speeches from EPHAR President, Arthur Weston Professor Ray Hill (President-Elect, BPS). The 350 delegates and guests applauded as the BPS created two new Honorary Fellows, Professor Sir Michael Berridge, FRS and Dr Ralph Kohn, FRS who both replied with their reminiscences.

Professor Eeva Moilanen, who succeeds Arthur Weston as EPHAR President commented that 'she was sorry for those pharmacologists who had not attended such a great meeting'. But perhaps the best memorial to EPHAR 2008 is from a conference delegate who completed the feedback form with the words ' Great organisation, great sense of energy: FANTASTIC!

For the wine tasting quiz, some delightful team names were presented including "Up Jacobs Creek without a paddle", Cote du Pennines, and the more highbrow Dionysus (Greek god of wine). Five wines were tasted and at the end of each round Roger judged each team for categories such as type of wine, country, body and description. After a tight contest, in which many teams were vying for last place, the winning team was surprisingly, "Pape du Manc". The booby prize went to Dionysus which just goes to show- never trust a Greek bearing wine knowledge. Prizes for best overblown description (something to do with goats cheese!) and worst contribution to a team were handed out and a thankyou to Roger in the form of a wine containing lots of cyanidins. Ivor Williams was on hand to record the event with some photographs.

Later on a bit of dancing got underway and as the YPs strutted their stuff, the older members sloped off as it was well past their bed time. At the end of the evening e-mail addresses were exchanged and many YPs met later in the meeting and supported each other during their presentations. From the feedback, this networking event was a great success and would be repeated in the future.

Professor Roger Corder delighted the crowd with a short talk entitled "The Pharmacology of Wine". In his amusing but informative presentation he exposed the popular misconception that antioxidants are key health components f red wine and focused on the properties of the cyanidins. He also talked about the correlation between longevity in regions of France in relation to consumption of wines containing these agents and, particularly relevant in these days of binge drinking, informed the YPs what is a good amount of wine to drink and what is too much!