Conferences are for networking

D’uh. But I didn’t fully realize this for myself until recently. Reflections on a few days at Congress. An excerpt:

What’s striking for me about this experience is how little time I spent at actual conference sessions, and how much networking I did instead. During my PhD student days, going to a conference meant, well, going to the conference: attending sessions, sitting through lunch-time keynotes and dinner-time award presentations, joining in evening group activities. When coffee breaks ended, I hurried into a session. I remember once skipping an afternoon to go to the Columbus Zoo. I felt like I was breaking a rule — and probably only did it because a professor of mine instigated the outing. I realize now that I treated conferences like they were courses: a graduate student doesn’t simply skip classes; why would I act differently at a conference?

Read the full post over at University Affairs.

In the Congress 2015 expo space with Ana Majstorovic (Mitacs) and Mary Chaktsiris (Research Matters, COU)
In the Congress 2015 expo space with Ana Majstorovic (Mitacs) and Mary Chaktsiris (Research Matters, COU)