Here we go a-conferencing
Ah summer. The season of warm weather, sunshine, beaches, late sunsets. It's also the season when the undergrads leave campus and one can walk around without bumping into people and find decent parking. But that's a thought for another day.
Summer is the season of conferences. Conference = a "business trip" we science types take to an exotic locale to speak and think deeply about the groundbreaking & trendsetting new discoveries of the last year or so. We kiss up to the bigwigs in the field and give presentations on our own little bits of research, hoping for someone to stand up and say "Look--she's a genius! The next Einstein!" (Wait, maybe that's just me.) But really, we also revel in the chance to go somewhere cool.
It stands to reason that a lot of conferencing takes place in the summer. This is when most faculty are not teaching and can actually take the time to go to Kuala Lumpur or the Canary Islands or Sydney for "work". And if you have to be in Lisbon for a week for work anyway, well you may as well stay another week or two and bring the family over for a little vacation while you're there. :)
Summer, however, is perhaps not the best time to schedule a week-long meeting in Columbus, Ohio. No offense to Ohio as I am sure it is a lovely place, but I can think of about 1000 other places I'd rather be right now than a freakishly cold dorm room in Ohio (complete with permenantly dirty bathroom and microfridge!). I don't really know why the conference housing is university dorms, but it is. I had a complete undergrad flashback when I checked in this afternoon. I don't miss dorm living at all.
I'm giving my very first talk this week. Thursday afternoon to be exact, if you'd like to think good thoughts for me. :) I've given plenty of presentations and seminars and the like at school; public speaking doesn't really bother me. The science of what I'm presenting does bother me a little. I feel like I know just enough to pick out the weak spots in my arguments; I just don't know that I have my feet under me enough on this project to stand up to the audience when they call me on it and convince them that I am right. It's a little nerve-wracking, too, doing this on the eve of my last year of grad school. I'm getting ready to start applying for postdocs and I cannot afford to make an ass of myself and then ask for a job.
Anyway, prepping for this conference has given me migraines for weeks and cost me countless hours of sleep. So I am glad it's finally here. Wish me luck; maybe I'll post again after the conference picnic tomorrow. There's supposed to be some kind of Beer Bash.....who doesn't love several hundred drunk scientists? :)
Summer is the season of conferences. Conference = a "business trip" we science types take to an exotic locale to speak and think deeply about the groundbreaking & trendsetting new discoveries of the last year or so. We kiss up to the bigwigs in the field and give presentations on our own little bits of research, hoping for someone to stand up and say "Look--she's a genius! The next Einstein!" (Wait, maybe that's just me.) But really, we also revel in the chance to go somewhere cool.
It stands to reason that a lot of conferencing takes place in the summer. This is when most faculty are not teaching and can actually take the time to go to Kuala Lumpur or the Canary Islands or Sydney for "work". And if you have to be in Lisbon for a week for work anyway, well you may as well stay another week or two and bring the family over for a little vacation while you're there. :)
Summer, however, is perhaps not the best time to schedule a week-long meeting in Columbus, Ohio. No offense to Ohio as I am sure it is a lovely place, but I can think of about 1000 other places I'd rather be right now than a freakishly cold dorm room in Ohio (complete with permenantly dirty bathroom and microfridge!). I don't really know why the conference housing is university dorms, but it is. I had a complete undergrad flashback when I checked in this afternoon. I don't miss dorm living at all.
I'm giving my very first talk this week. Thursday afternoon to be exact, if you'd like to think good thoughts for me. :) I've given plenty of presentations and seminars and the like at school; public speaking doesn't really bother me. The science of what I'm presenting does bother me a little. I feel like I know just enough to pick out the weak spots in my arguments; I just don't know that I have my feet under me enough on this project to stand up to the audience when they call me on it and convince them that I am right. It's a little nerve-wracking, too, doing this on the eve of my last year of grad school. I'm getting ready to start applying for postdocs and I cannot afford to make an ass of myself and then ask for a job.
Anyway, prepping for this conference has given me migraines for weeks and cost me countless hours of sleep. So I am glad it's finally here. Wish me luck; maybe I'll post again after the conference picnic tomorrow. There's supposed to be some kind of Beer Bash.....who doesn't love several hundred drunk scientists? :)
posted by Meredith | 3:08 PM
4 Comments:
Good luck at your talk! I always get nervous doing that at conferences too. Just remember that no one is there to zing you. They're there because they honestly are interested in what you have to say. Don't forget to schmooze and network so people know you're looking for postdocs! Oh, and Ohio is simply lovely this time of year. :)
You will do great and the nerves will evaporate about 2 minutes in to it. Sadly, at that point you will still be in Columbus.
i second everything cousineddie says. except the part about ohio being lovely this time of year. sorry you are stuck in a nasty cold and dirty dorm. but really, dude--you will be great--we all know this even if you don't. just don't TOUCH a laser pointer if you rhands are shaking, speak loud and authoritatively even if you don't feel it, and it will be over before you know it. and you have your baby brother to look forward to when you get home! YAY!
I'm not a fan of Ohio either. Good luck at your talk! And don't touch anything in that dorm, it sounds nasty.
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