During January 2009 I was invited to speak at Arthopod Genomics Workshop as part of the 17^th annual Plant and Animal Genome Conference in San Diego, California (10 -15 January). This conference is a great opportunity to find out what the state of the science of genomics is, especially of organisms of agricultural importance. I renewed some contacts with researchers that I already knew and made some interesting new contacts with other researchers including some from the USDA (Dr. Wayne Hunter) in Florida and the University of Texas (Dr. Blake Bextine).