I went international for my MSc and PhD. It was a wonderful experience of not just scientific exploration but learning about different cultures and ways of life across Europe. It never occurred to me that returning to the US to start my professional career would be so challenging. The customs of academia in the UK and the US differed greatly on metrics of success, expectations for funding, teaching vs research responsibilities and allotted effort, hierarchy/formalities, and departmental politics. The relationships I developed with colleagues and mentors internationally knew about as much as I did on the ins and outs of the US academic system. I soon realized that I needed to network, find new mentors, and get my name and research in the US sphere. And what better way to do that than at a conference.
About 8 months into my postdoc, I was submitting abstracts to conferences and about to co-host a regional conference, when the pandemic hit. The regional conference was cancelled along with other conferences and the rest took the chance to try a virtual conference.
I am someone who struggles in social situations. With virtual conferences, there is the added anxiety of talking to faceless cameras where I am unable to read body language and having to start conversations by being the person who unmutes. So, these are a few of the ways I came up with to network at virtual conferences that limited my social anxiety that comes with networking:
Pre-conference
The best and most common tip I received, and will pass on to anyone reading this, is to mark your calendar as ‘out of office’ during the conference as if the conference was in-person. While this might not be feasible for everyone or every lab, trying to keep these days as free as possible greatly helped with the immersion and saved my social energy for the conference.
Joined biomechanics societies, e.g. IWB
This provided interaction through text, such as slack, and at monthly meetings where the interactions were within smaller breakout groups.
Applied for conference- and society-specific travel grants and/or relevant awards
This put my name in front of committee members and reviewers without the need for cold networking.
I also received more of these awards than I expected. Many people have said to apply to any and all awards even if your imposter syndrome tells you otherwise, and, based on my personal experience, I’d have to agree and am happy that I did.
For those awards I did not get, I followed up via email asking for feedback or to thank them for their work as it provided an easy introduction. In some cases, this generated good conversations with the committee chair/member.
Learned about programs specific to conferences that required sign-up prior to the conference, e.g., mentor-mentee program
These programs were all online sign-up and allowed for pointed conversations that minimized the awkward silences typically accompanying cold networking at in-person conferences.
One of the great aspects of a virtual conference is that meet-ups stemming from these programs were all scheduled over zoom/teams. This meant that I didn’t have to figure out what somebody looked like, navigate a crowded area, or how to join into group conversations before breaking off into your one-on-one.
During Conference
The best perk of a virtual conference is the ability to break away and socially recharge. At an in-person conference, it is hard to find a quiet space and typically by mid-day I had spent all my social energy. With virtual conferences, I could easily close out of the conference program and take the time I needed before jumping back in. It allowed me to participate in more of the social components and networking than I would have during an in-person conference.
Participating during presentations
There is great research at conferences and most of the time I have questions. However, I rarely asked questions at in-person conferences because 1. I had to speak over the microphone during Q&A portions, or 2. I had to figure out how to catch-up with the speaker after the presentations when many others crowded around as well.
Personally, the virtual conferences I liked best had the Q&A feature where questions were only seen by the moderators/presenters or were anonymous to the public. Most conferences also had chat options outside of presentations to chat with individuals one-on-one and this made it much easier for me to interact with any presenter.
Participated in virtual social components
The social components of a conference are the best place for networking. Virtually it can be more difficult to start these conversations. Here are two examples of how I navigated these:
One conference had a scavenger hunt which required interacting with other conference attendees. This provided an easy conversation starter for those people that I had identified to approach for cold networking.
Another conference had a leaderboard with points based on interactions that you could gain through posting questions for presentations or creating/posting on social topics (e.g. what is your favorite podcast?). My goal was to keep my name on the leaderboard and did end-up interacting with more people at this conference than any other.
Identified and attended specific program events that fostered small-group conversations, e.g. diversity events, postdoc/student/early career specific events, job fairs
Many of these events contained breakout groups of a smaller set of people making it less stressful to get to know other researchers interested in similar topics.
Do you have any tips for attending virtual or in-person conferences? Please share!
About the author:
Dr. Moudy is a Scientist in the Neuroscience lab at NASA JSC. She works as a contractor with Aegis Aerospace and KBR Wyle. Her research has focused on understanding the influence of between-limb coordination on limb loading that could lead to pain and osteoarthritis in clinical populations, such as individuals with a lower-limb amputation. With her recent position at NASA, she has shifted focus to mitigating the risks of altered gravity/load on whole body coordination.