Excellent notions, Leslie. I especially like the part about beer and donkeys!
I think backup and encryption issues go hand-in-hand and we could easily get a talk together on those topics. From our past discussions, I can testify that Bert and Adam have vast knowledge of this topic. Adam even owns an IronKey (perhaps he will demonstrate its self-destruct feature for us!)
https://www.ironkey.com/I will talk with them about getting a talk together on those topics, and I will make them speak in terms that we mere mortals can understand. And I will make sure there are handouts!
As far as the Excel for lab tracking, I am not sure there is enough material there for an entire discussion, but I can envision us having a workshop where each of us shows off our "Tips and Tricks" in person. We could take requests!
