This year the supercomputing community gathers in Seattle on November 14-17 for SC11, the conference to learn and talk about designing, building, and coding the biggest computers in the world.

So what can you expect? Who better to ask than the chair of SC11, Scott Lathrop? In a wide-ranging conversation here on The Register, we explore how the show focuses on reaching out to HPC newbies and non-traditional fields of science, while continuing to serve as a forum and meeting place for scientific and computing communities.

Check out the video and, while you’re at it, dash off an email to your boss asking him to approve a trip to Seattle this November – it will be quite a show.