Are you missing out at conferences? You might be if you’re just attending and not connecting.

Conferences are a fantastic place to meet the biggest names in your field, make connections that can lead to later jobs, and “gain insight into some of the ‘less-obvious’ aspects of how things work in the academic world — various norms, conventions, as well as some of the social and political dimensions.”

Conferences also are a great opportunity to be a helpful expert, connecting the dots via social media for other attendees as well as people who are monitoring the meeting from afar.

In today’s challenge, you’re going to learn some ways to hustle at conferences and make plans for future meetings.

But first things first: you’ve got to attend the right conferences.

Choose the right conference

There can be dozens of conferences aimed at researchers in your field. Here’s how to find your best options:

Ask a trusted colleague or advisor: they can tell you what the most popular conferences are, or the ones that are most appropriate for someone in your area of study or stage in your career. Take their recommendations with a grain of salt, though: if you’re studying something they’re unfamiliar with or working on an interdisciplinary problem, they might not know of all the best opportunities.

Browse scholarly society websites: some of the most important conferences are organized by scholarly societies. So check out the websites of any scholarly societies that are big in your field to see if they have annual meetings or related events listed.

Search Lanyrd: Lanyrd is a platform for announcing your intent to attend and speak at meetings, and discover meetings in your area of expertise. You can sign up for free by connecting your Twitter or LinkedIn accounts, and Lanyrd will helpfully show you what meetings others in your network are attending. You can also search the platform by subject area.

Search WikiCFP or Nature Events: both of these sites provide comprehensive lists of science meetings from around the world. You can browse by subject area on both, and Nature Events even lets you export conference information to your calendar. These platforms are less social media-oriented than Lanyrd.

Once you’ve got your meeting options, how can you know the right ones are to attend? Science recruiter David Jensen suggests four filters to use when deciding whether to attend a conference:

• Relevance of the topic to your current work and future goals. If you have the option, choose a meeting in your current or future field with a broad range of attendees, including people from industry and government.
• The quality of the speakers. The quality of the speakers determines the quality of the audience, which determines the quality of the networking opportunity.
• Visibility. While you can make a ton of contacts at a big meeting if you do it right, you’ll be more visible at a smaller meeting. An opportunity to present at a more intimate meeting is often very meaningful.
• Can you afford it? …At a big meeting, you can skip the presentations and get an inexpensive “exhibits only” badge. Ask the organizers if they need volunteers to work the social events desk or help attendees with their projection equipment. Many meetings have reduced rates for students, and some even have awards to cover the cost of meeting-related travel.

Got some conferences in mind now? Good–now let’s dig into how you can make the most of ‘em.

Plan ahead

Dig into the session schedules available on the conference website, and try to identify any “must see” talks by topic well ahead of time. It’ll keep you from missing out on important subjects related to your work, and provide valuable opportunities to make meaningful connections.

In addition to searching the schedule by topic, keep an eye out for the names of researchers you want to meet. Conferences provide many opportunities to connect: poster sessions, before and after presentations, at cocktail hours, and so on. If there’s anyone you want to meet who’s presenting, this meeting will be your chance!

You can also find out who’s just planning to attend by connecting your Lanyrd account with Twitter and LinkedIn. Lanyrd will search for members of your network and let you know what meetings they’ve RSVP’d to. Of course, this only works if your network is on Lanyrd. An alternative is to ask your colleagues via social media whether they plan to attend.

Make some dates

Once you have a sense of who’s going to attend, reach out via email or social media to arrange an informal meetup. The Next Scientist’s Julio Peironcely suggests cold-emailing with the following information:

Use for your email a self-explanatory title (don’t just say “Hello”). Use something like “Meeting at conference XXX dinner to discuss BLABLA?”.

The first paragraph of your email is your elevator pitch, short and to the point. [More on that in a moment.] After reading the first paragraph, the scientist you are [contacting] should already know if he [sic] wants to meet or not. Leave the details for the rest of the email…

The rest of the email could contain some of your achievements. Describe also what’s in for the other person to meet with you.

For contacting colleagues you’re already familiar with, 99u suggests reaching out to your contacts beforehand and proposing “grabbing an early breakfast together, lunch, or drinks during the conference. Encourage each person to invite 1-2 people that they deeply respect, thus broadening the potential of the meeting.”

Prepare an elevator speech

Consider this scenario: you find yourself standing in line for coffee with the conference’s keynote speaker, who also happens to be someone you’d love to collaborate with. How do you pique her interest in the 30 seconds you’ve got her full attention?

That’s where an elevator speech comes in. An elevator speech (also called an “elevator pitch”) is a short, practiced explanation of who you are and what you study. Having a pitch ready for situations like the one described above can save you from fumbling when you’re put on the spot.

Biologist Catherine Searle proposes the following framework for creating your elevator pitch:

• Introduction – Explain who you are. This is sometimes unnecessary if you have already struck up a conversation.

• Hook – What is the major question/problem you study? You can also start with an observation (e.g. I noticed this pattern in communities with more predators and I thought that predation could be driving dynamics).

• Solution – How are you answering this question? For example, you could describe your use of field surveys, experiments or modelling. You may also talk about why you use a particular system.

• Summary and benefits of this knowledge – What have you found? Why is this work useful? What are you looking into next? Try to draw it back to your hook.

• The stage of your career (optional). For example: “I’ll be finishing my PhD this spring and will be looking for a postdoc position.” This can be useful if you are about to transition to a new stage in your career; the listener may be a potential advisor or collaborator.

Use this framework to write out a brief elevator speech, then practice giving it. Practicing will help you eliminate awkward phrases, nail the flow, and memorize your main points. Remember to keep it short! You can always elaborate incrementally after you’ve got their interest.

If you’ll be presenting a poster at a future meeting, you’ll also want to create and practice a poster pitch, too.

“Never eat alone”

CC-BY-SA Thomas Wanhoff

There are heaps of opportunities to meet others at conferences, and some of the best happen around the dinner table: formal conference meals, informal “birds of a feather” lunch meetups, and even impromptu “tweetups” for coffee or drinks.

Conference-hosted meals can give you a chance to become acquainted with people you otherwise might not meet. Worried about the mechanics of meeting new people? Julio Peironcely suggests simply asking if an empty seat is taken, sitting down, and starting with small talk about the conference food before moving on to discussing research.

He also offers the following “can’t fail” questions you can use to keep the conversation from stalling before you finish your first course:

• What is your research about?
• Do you have some exciting results so far?
• How is it to do research in your group? Pros, cons?
• How is it to live in your city?
• What were the toughest moments in your PhD?
• What are your scientific plans?

Meeting organizers might also designate tables for “birds of a feather” discussions, so you can meet others interested in similar topics. (That’s how I met Jason face-to-face for the first time–at a “birds of a feather” luncheon about altmetrics!) This can be an easy way to find like-minded colleagues.

You can also use mealtime to arrange informal meetings with colleagues, including those you emailed in the “Make some dates” step. Use conference downtime to arrange meetings over coffee or drinks; arranging an impromptu “tweetup” can also be a fun way to meet new people.

The title of this section is taken from the popular networking book, Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. I highly recommend it for learning more networking strategies.

Attend the poster session

Poster sessions are great for meeting people. Think about it: a room full of scientists standing near their posters for hours, hungering to talk to others about their research. It’s the perfect time to network and a good place to refine your networking skills. Use the prepared questions suggested above to get the conversation started. And be prepared to hand out business cards to those you meet who could be good collaborators. (More on business cards below.)

Carpe colloquium

You read that right: seize the conference! Take opportunities for socialization that arise, even if they don’t fit into the rubric of what you’re “supposed to do.” I once made a new friend and valuable contact at a New Orleans-based conference by hunting down beignets when I was supposed to be in a talk.

You should do the same. Forego a keynote presentation to do some impromptu hacking on research code; strike up conversations with poster presenters and invite them to grab a coffee when their poster session ends; linger in the conference hallway to continue a debate that started over lunch; and just basically make the most of your time at the conference by building great relationships.

Curate the conference for others

By tweeting and blogging about the meetings you attend, you can not only recap important sessions for other attendees, but also share information with those who were unable to attend.

Liveblogging and livetweeting from sessions are popular ways to curate content as the meeting unfolds; you can also recap the entire conference after the meeting ends.

Keep in mind that some conferences have banned social media coverage of their meetings, and some presenters might not want you to share their findings before they have a chance to publish them in a peer-reviewed journal. Check before you blog (and tweet)!

Business cards

Be sure to bring business cards with you when you attend conferences. (And yes, even grad students should bring cards!) They’re a quick and easy way to share your contact information with others.

You can order business cards online at Moo.com, or hit up your local copy shop, which often offers competitive prices. Moo cards have design templates, so if you’re not artistic, you don’t have to worry about designing anything–you can just choose a design, type in your contact information, and click “Buy.”

One downside to these cards is that it can be easy to forget the face that goes with a name once you return from a conference. 99u proposes beating this by writing “action items” on the back of any cards you collect; for example, “Add on LinkedIn” for a generic new acquaintance or “Introduce to Dr. Smith – reagents hookup” for a friendly vendor you intend to follow up with.

Always follow up

You don’t have to do this for everyone you meet, but for the best connections you made at a conference, it’s nice to send an email saying, “Hello, I really liked your talk” or “Thanks for the constructive criticism about my poster, it will help me improve my study.”

The Addgene blog points out that it’s also useful to stay in touch after the meeting so you can meet up at next year’s conference. “Once is just a meeting, but having lunch twice turns a stranger into a friendly colleague.”

You can use LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media platforms for ongoing interactions–the occasional comment, “like” or retweet will keep you at the top of their mind. Do it while you’re still at the conference, or right away when you get home. Otherwise, it’s easy to forget! And that’d be a waste.

Challenges

Hustling at conferences can be difficult if you’re an introvert. (Heck, it can sometimes be hard if you’re an extrovert!) I’d suggest starting small–maybe doing only 2 or 3 things I’ve suggested above during your next meeting–and building up from there. Check out The Postdoc Experience blog for more tips aimed at introverts who need to network.

Another challenge comes in the shape of a cocktail glass. If you don’t drink, booze-based networking opportunities can perpetuate a culture of exclusion, making it very hard to connect with other researchers in a meaningful way. You can avoid this issue by joining in the event without drinking (to the extent it’s comfortable to you), planning ahead to informal meetings, and taking full advantage of “birds of a feather” meals and coffee breaks to socialize.

Homework

Unless you’re attending a conference tomorrow, you won’t be able to act on the advice in this guide immediately.

Instead, read this guide carefully and start preparing for the next meeting you’re going to attend. Plan out who you’ll try to connect with, prepare your elevator pitch, order some business cards, and so on. That way, you can come out swinging when those conference doors open.

PS

Tomorrow is American Thanksgiving, so we’ll be taking the day off from the Impact Challenge. See you on Friday!