On 21 – 23 May 2018 the 8th Australasian Symposium on Ionic Liquids (ASIL8) was held at Deakin University in Melbourne. Magda Sitko and Anna Chrobok represented our group at this exciting event. It was not only a great opportunity to present our research on Ionic liquids based on Group 13 metals as effective catalysts for key transformations in organic synthesis but also to meet with our alumni – dr Karolina Matuszek, who after defending her PhD thesis in 2017, joined Prof. Mac Ferlane’s group at Monash University – one of the leading groups working in the area of ILs!