{"id":514,"date":"2017-06-02T11:52:44","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T11:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/?p=514"},"modified":"2020-12-28T18:49:39","modified_gmt":"2020-12-28T18:49:39","slug":"conferencing-as-a-graduate-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/conferencing-as-a-graduate-student\/","title":{"rendered":"Conferencing as a Graduate Student…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"webber\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I recently attended the Canadian Society of Ecology Evolution (CSEE) conference in Victoria, BC, and as I\u2019ve been reflecting on my experiences at this conference (and others) I thought about sharing them in a blog post.<\/p>\n

To start: conferences are hard! Not only do we present our research as oral or poster presentations to experts in our field, we also need to prepare for our presentation\/poster ahead of time. In addition to this, once at the conference we are thrown head first into a range of social scenarios with potentially famous scientists\/researchers! Okay, so it\u2019s not THAT bad.<\/p>\n

Throughout my undergrad, MSc, and PhD I attended and presented at seven international conferences; four North American Society for Bat Research (NASBR<\/a>) conferences and three CSEE<\/a> conferences, both of which are wonderful and full of amazing people that help make them a comfortable place for everyone. During my time attending these conferences, I noticed, and would like to highlight, three things that are relevant for graduate students – whether it\u2019s your first, or 15th<\/sup> time attending.<\/p>\n

First, graduate students often give the best talks. And by often, I mean almost always! This was always the case at both NASBR and CSEE, and apparently it\u2019s similar at other conferences as well. One hypothesis explaining this phenomenon is that students care more. The rationale is that some professors may have only prepared their talk the night before, while students often focus on their project and presentation for a very long time, so they are more comfortable with the material. Specifically, students are likely presenting an aspect of their thesis which they\u2019ve spent an extended period of time thinking about, writing about, and maybe even presenting about at local or regional conferences. As a result, some of the best talks I\u2019ve seen at conferences were student talks.<\/p>\n

Second, one of the harder parts of \u2018conferencing\u2019 for me is the socializing aspect. I think at my first conference as an Honours student I clung to a couple of senior lab-members and never left their side! I was terrified to talk to anyone because I didn\u2019t know what to say! As an introvert, conferences can be tough \u2013 a topic covered recently in a popular science blog: \u2018conferencing as an introvert<\/a>\u2019 \u2013 but of course, there are ways to do it! I have noticed two strategies that work; one helps you immediately and one helps you in the long-run.<\/p>\n

The \u201cI\u2019m stuck in a coffee break with no one to talk to<\/em>\u201d strategy is to find someone right away, and talk to them. Find someone whose presentation you saw (and liked) and tell them you thought it was cool. If this person happens to be a student, they\u2019re probably feeling the same way you are, and are probably relieved you came to talk to them. If it\u2019s a professor or post-doc, they are more than likely willing to engage with you and have a conversation about your research as well. Another option is to ask your supervisor and\/or senior lab-mates to introduce you to people they know or people you might want to know. This always works well and takes the pressure off saying \u201chi\u201d to a stranger. In many ways, meeting people at conferences is almost like speed-dating \u2013 an idea that my former and current lab-mates often joke about. Another thing you can do is attend social events. These are organized for a reason and can be quite fun! They\u2019re also an opportunity to interact with other people \u2013 maybe while drinking a free adult beverage<\/a> or two \u2013\u00a0 in a more low-key atmosphere (i.e., at a pub). Some of my best networking experiences occurred at these events and therefore, I always try to attend them.<\/p>\n

The long-run strategy is not particularly helpful when you\u2019re at your first conference, but after attending the same conference multiple times you’ll get to know more people. By your third or forth time attending you will have a built-in network of colleagues, friends, and potential future collaborators. This is something I\u2019ve noticed and I really appreciate. At the first NASBR conference I attended I only knew the people in my own lab and I met a few new people. The next year, I knew my lab plus the people from the previous year, and I met a few more new people. And, so it goes. If you are starting a PhD, or even a Master\u2019s degree, and you know what conference is best suited for you, it would be worthwhile to start going right away because the earlier you attend, the greater your network opportunities might be further down the road.<\/p>\n

My advice to any graduate students attending their first conference is to make sure you present something you are comfortable with (such as a thesis chapter that\u2019s nearly done). Make sure you prepare \u2013 as mentioned, I think the reason students often give better talks than professors, is that we care and we prepare. Finally, make sure you engage with other conference attendees. While conferences can be stressful, and preparing for them can be a lot of work, they are an important aspect of being a graduate student and they, of course, can be a lot of fun!<\/p>\n

Until next time…<\/p>\n

~Quinn <\/a> <\/a> https:\/\/zp-pdl.com\/get-quick-online-payday-loan-now.php<\/a><\/span> https:\/\/zp-pdl.com\/emergency-payday-loans.php<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently attended the Canadian Society of Ecology Evolution (CSEE) conference in Victoria, BC, and as I\u2019ve been reflecting on my experiences at this conference (and others) I thought about sharing them in a blog post. To start: conferences are hard! Not only do we present our research as oral or poster presentations to experts … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-quinn-webber","4":"post-514","6":"format-standard","7":"category-student-blog"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1687,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions\/1687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}