The Everlasting Search for the Right Conference

I just attended my last conference. A few months back, around November, I thought I had done just that, but turns out, I was lucky enough to a. get a bunch more of results and b. find a conference solely dedicated to my subject (phosphatases, just in case you were wondering) and on my way I was.

While I still stressed a bit about my presentation, the fact of knowing that I was pretty much done with the project AND the fact that everyone there was well acquainted with the subject, actually calmed me down. You would think that I would’ve been afraid of getting very hard questions, but you see, to quote one of the PIs I met this week: is not the hard questions that are a problem, is the dumb ones.

Now, I’ve always been told that there is no such thing as a dumb question, but that is not necessarily true. Here, the dumb question is the type that shows that the person wasn’t even listening to you in the first place. And the problem with these questions is that you can’t really dismiss them and you have to find a way to answer without showing that you are annoyed by this.

But let us go back to the conference itself. Because it was such a focused meeting, we were maybe 75 participants total. This was great, because it is much easier to mingle, and you would’ve been surprised as to how easy it was this time for me to approach people. I think I have mentioned before that I am very socially awkward. But here, the interest I had in meeting the people behind the research was greater than the fear of talking to strangers. Off course, there is also the fact that I have been super relaxed ever since I submitted my thesis, but that’s a different subject.

It saddens me greatly that it took me so long to find a conference like this. I learned a lot in three days, not only about my subject but many topics related to it. But most importantly. I learned about myself. I learned (or rather confirmed) that my struggle with socializing, even in a professional context, has to do more with the environment than with anything else.  And why is this important you ask? Because whether I like it or not, socializing is a big part of what we do. Even if the interactions are made through a computer (hi, nice to see you again) or in person, the fact is that in science we shouldn’t forget about the fact that our research isn’t and shouldn’t be just for ourselves, and part of accomplishing this is being able to talk to others about it, independent of the background. 

Being personable and finding a way to be comfortable makes it easier to talk about the complicated parts of your work, without making it complicated for the other person. Case in point, and you may laugh, but for the first time in my professional life, I did a talk and my voice didn’t tremble one single time. Did I manage to answer all of the questions? Well, no, there’s still some things we haven’t been able to answer on my project. But I didn’t freeze, even when a certain professor, known by making quite harsh questions (“I have 2 questions and a comment”) often oriented to destabilize you, was the one asking. And hey, I survived, didn’t I?

I also met great students, and several working on the same protein I do although in very different models. It is very exciting to see how many questions are being answered around it. After 7 years of working with it, it is always nice to see it in other mechanisms. 

This time I actually had a poster AND a talk to give, which had never happened to me. I have told you before that I preferred to have posters to talks, because it allows me to open one on one to people and I usually find that discussions are more productive, since the person coming to see your poster is either interested or a judge and in both cases there is a more genuine interaction. This time however, I was extremely lucky; since it was a very small audience, even for my talk I had the attention of (almost) all of the public and both during the poster session and during my talk I got very good comments and relevant questions that I feel can only advance the way I will discuss my results.  It is true that a couple of times I ended up answering “that is a great idea, I will pass the suggestion along, but since I am leaving the lab this summer, it will be someone else who answers your question in the future”. But the point remains that there were great ideas.

I wish I would have the opportunity to have more meetings like this through my PhD. That said, I don’t know if my research, or me for that matter, was ready before nowadays. In all, I am extremely happy with this last chance to share my results. Even better, I got to visit England for the first time. 

So what I am trying to say with this post, is that if you are still in the search for the right conference for you, don't despair. We all had to pass through symposiums, conferences, congresses etc, where our subject seems to be borderline relevant. But it's by attending this that we manage to identify what we like or dislike of a conference, and how, finally we can find the right match for  our research.

What has been your favorite meeting and why? 

 The Everlasting Gaze by The Smashing Pumpkins

 

A girl walks into a conference

In the past 4 days I went to 2 very different conferences. The first one, I mentioned last week, was the congress of the Science Communicators of Québec (ACS). The second one was a Host-Pathogen Interaction Symposium that I've been attending for the past 6 years. Interestingly enough, I felt way more comfortable in the new one which, is a weird thing, considering how socially awkward I can be.

If someone asks me what was the main difference I noticed between the 2 conferences, I would have to say: attitude. They were both small conferences, but even though most of the people in the symposium knew each other, there is always this "frenemy" vibe I get in scientific conferences, whereas at the ACS everyone was so inviting and welcoming...or at least that's how they made me feel. I even talk to some well known characters in the field, and while I did feel a bit self-conscious (it is me after all) their tone was never patronizing and I not once felt like anyone was looking down on me, even if I was one of the new ones.

Another big thing I noticed was that during the talks and workshops, most of the questions in the ACS one felt constructive. It's not that the questions in other type of congress are destructive per se, but understandably most of the time, there are questions intended to discover the flaws in a present hypothesis. While this can make the research stronger, there is always a way to be critique of someone's work.

Finally but probably the most important one is the communication itself. The language used. While it is to be expected that a scientific conference has much more specific terms during a talk, the thing is not everyone attending is already an expert. People jump into acronyms or terms that might be very obvious to them and their lab, but there are so many of them (acronyms) that you can see how slowly a big chunk of the audience just disconnected. If you don't know what NTD means (Neglected Tropical Diseases in this context) chances are your brain will wonder off trying to figure out what it is, and by the time you ask/figure it out, the talk has advanced and you just missed the whole relevance or the punch line. You could argue that the people in the ACS managed to pass their message along way better, because they precisely work in communication. But if the whole point of going to a conference is sharing your information, scientists have no choice but to step up their communication game.

In all guys, I feel like I am making the right choice in this career path. You know when you find a group of friends and you sort of feel at home? Because everyone understands you in a very weird way? That's how I felt.

Getting ready for a new type of congress

As I have mentioned several times now, I want to make the transition from academia and work on scientific communication. I’ve been building a network, talking to people from the institute and of course, looking around for courses and opportunities to work on my writing. In part, starting this blog was intended to help me work on my vulgarization skills.

But next weekend I am taking one step further: I am going to a congress organized by the Scientific Communicators of Québec (ACS in French). I am very excited but also nervous. I am used to scientific congress, particularly those related to my field (Immunology). This time, from what I see in the program, most of the background of the attendees is journalism or communication itself, with some of them having specializations in science.

What I expect from this congress is very different from others I’ve gone to. In the latter, I hoped for people to see my research and either propose and give new ideas to advance my project, or to critique (hopefully in a constructive manner) my results, so I can make it better. This time, all my expectations are based on learning. Learning what the field has and needs, and I am lucky that this is pretty much the theme this year.

As someone who has been working in academia for the past 11 years, it will be interesting to see the type of discussions that experts in scientific communication have. How do they intend to deliver the scientific message to so many different levels of public, from the daily newspaper to specialized magazines without jumping in the academic format.

What am I doing to prepare myself? I actually have an interview with one of the panelist that happens to work for the institute and she kindly accepted to see me and answer any questions I have on the field. Even better, this meeting will be just a few days before the congress so I can be more than ready.

I am doing all of this, while at the same time working on a poster for one of my more “typical” congress. I’ve talked before on how to prepare for this type of presentations, mostly for talks, but I have also mentioned to not dismiss poster presentations. Next week, I expect to give you a comparison of the two congress, while also sharing whatever I learn in the ACS on.

In the meantime, be careful with what you believe, do your research and keep doing good science.