As a newly started master student it can be a bit intimidating to attend a conference. Nevertheless, I said yes when I was offered to attend MEWE16 in Copenhagen. I had just ended a one-year maternity leave and was eager to start my thesis and talk to adult people.
I quickly realized that I was surrounded by experts. I recognized names from articles, got a bit starstruck and started thinking: How in the … am I supposed to learn anything from this? They are so much smarter than me.
However, as the days past I realized there is a lot to take home from such an event – even for a small fry master student. So, I compiled a list:
- Watch and learn. If you can follow the science – great! If you can’t, look for other things. In what way, did he/she present data? What worked? What did not? Did someone use other means to get their message through? One thing that I found could really keep my attention was humor. Not like comedy – a little goes a long way – but when my mind started to wander, humor redirected my attention back to the talk.
- Poster sessions. I was surprised that the poster session was so crowded and it quickly became awkward because I was unprepared. So, take some time to browse the posters and note if anyone is of particular interest. Should there be no one of interest, use it as practice in “talking science” to people you don’t know. A suggestion could be: 1) go to a poster 2) ask: “Can you tell me about your poster?” At least for me, it is very good practice.
- Networking can be many things. Don’t feel like you have to network with all the big guys, just because you’re in the same room. I am lucky enough to belong to a group that treasures social gatherings and I spent most of my time building my “local network”.
- Be nice to yourself. I think you should be fair to yourself and realize that very few talks are directed toward you. It is a crowd of experts and if you want to have a relevant debate on your topic, maybe you have to narrow your talk and that’s not always for small fry. This is an opportunity to get some fresh air, see the city or browse the posters as mentioned earlier.
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Julie K.T. Pedersen
Msc. Student. Developing new bioinformatic tools for time-series and network analysis.
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