The Sc2.0 project is perhaps the largest synthetic biology project in the public domain, and ultimately aims to construct a new version of the humble brewer's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Each year, the Sc2.0 consortium gather to discuss progress in this ambitious project and highlight new developments at the forefront of synthetic genome engineering. This viewpoint summarizes some of the key moments of the 2016 conference, including updates on the Sc2.0 project itself, mammalian synthetic biology, DNA assembly automation, HGP-Write and a panel discussion on the social and ethical perspectives of synthetic biology.