The Western Algebraic Geometry Seminar traces its origins back to the Utah-UCLA Algebraic Geometry Seminar started in 1989 by H. Clemens, D. Gieseker, M. Green, J. Kollar, and R. Lazarsfeld. Later on, it became the Utah-UCLA-Chicago Algebraic Geometry Seminar. Sadly, as senior figures moved east, the original WAGS faded away.
In 2002, WAGS was resurrected. Our goal is to have a twice-yearly meeting of algebraic geometers in the western half of the United States and Canada, with ample time for chatting, as well as a good number of research talks. The conference has been consistently attracting over 50 participants. WAGS is currently funded through at least three sources: my CAREER grant, Aaron Bertram's NSF grant, and of course the generosity of the host institutions. Our policy is not to fund senior participants; we hope that the conference will be attractive enough that senior algebraic geometers will come of their own volition. However, we try to fund all graduate students and unfunded post-docs (from the western two time zones of the continent).
The institutions currently participating in WAGS are Colorado State University, Stanford University, the University of British Columbia, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Utah, the University of Washington, and more.
Here is a list of the WAGS conferences so far:
If you are interested in participating, please contact the organizer of the next WAGS. If you are not sure who that is, please let me know.
Also, I maintain the WAGS e-mail lists, just to keep them in one place. There's one "long" list used to announce each WAGS, and a "short" list for people willing to deal with bureaucratic issues (such as the precise dates of the next WAGS, or the coffee meeting at each WAGS to sort out the future ones). If you would like to be on (or off) one of these lists, please let me know!