It was a rookie mistake. In April, just months after establishing his own lab at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Leonard Foster strolled through the booths at the Keystone Symposium on Proteomics and Bioinformatics in Keystone, Colorado, chatting up friendly vendors during a break.
"I was slammed with meetings for two weeks after that, with people trying to get me to buy equipment," he recalls. He is wiser now to the different behaviour needed by a postdoc trawling for free T-shirts and by a new investigator hoping to make the right connections.
Question time: Bernard Golding says that quizzing big-shots about their lecture can provide a useful way to make contacts at a conference.Attending scientific conferences early in the pre-tenure years can be critical for networking, recruitment and visibility. The informality and intimacy of smaller meetings usually affords the best opportunities for getting to know senior scientists in a field and for keeping up with major developments. There's no magic formula for becoming a prime schmoozer (nor is it even recommended), but people with experience can offer advice on making a good impression.
It's normal to feel overwhelmed and intimidated by the reputations of big names. Eleftherios Diamandis, a cancer researcher at the University of Toronto, Canada, "felt like a lost chicken" at his first American Association for Cancer Research meeting some 15 years ago. But he struck up a conversation with someone whose badge carried a name he thought sounded Greek, like his own. That casual meeting resulted in one the longest and most fruitful collaborations of Diamandis's career.
Junior faculty members should not wait until they have a complete science story to go to meetings, says Dirk Schübeler, an epigenetics researcher at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel, Switzerland. "You are cutting yourself off if you wait," he says. Not only do you miss a couple years of networking, but more importantly, he notes, you miss the chance to see how your research fits into the field.
Exposing yourself
The people you meet at conferences will be competitors, future collaborators, old friends and colleagues in the same boat, as well as grant and manuscript reviewers and writers of tenure letters. A newly established investigator should mingle with all of them, in time, to become known as a contributor of appealing work in the field. Working the crowd doesn't come naturally to most scientists, but senior faculty members recommend finding the right amount of boldness. That means stepping outside your comfort zone of mixing with friends and known colleagues.
"My agenda will fill itself up with people I already know, so you will definitely have to make the first move," says Ted Weinert, a cell-cycle expert at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who likes to talk science over a one-to-one lunch or coffee. "When people ask for my opinion on their research, I'm always flattered," he adds.
Bernard Golding, a veteran organic chemist at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, suggests approaching a senior scientist after his or her presentation with a follow-up question. "Most of us are happy to sit down with whomever. The more questions I get at a lecture, the more I like it," he says.
Others say it can ease introductions if they are made by a mutual friend. Or invite established colleagues to stop by your poster to view data that would interest them. Poster sessions offer an informal chance for a scientific chat.
Golding, who has chaired conferences on vitamin B12 chemistry, says organizers should try to be as inclusive of the younger generation as possible and not have a "clique of plenary speakers". At smaller conferences, he has included activities such as an eight-mile hike for people to get to know each other.
Also, he says, veteran scientists should make time to visit young scientists' posters — although the onus is on the presenters. "Put a massive amount of effort into the poster," Golding says. Don't cram too much on it, he warns, and make it eye-catching. An attractive poster can be the basis for the next presentation or a first publication, or can be hung outside an office to attract students (see Nature 434, 416–417; 2005). Colour handouts of your poster can serve as a permanent reminder of you and your work, he adds.
Don't spend the whole meeting chasing a few big names either. Leave time to mingle with other junior faculty members to commiserate about start-up problems, or find like-minded collaborators. For postdoc job candidates, this is a chance to get a foot in the door.
Morgan Tucker, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado, Boulder, spent much of his time at the international Caenorhabditis elegans meeting in Los Angeles in June probing new faculty members about their job searches. He says it was eye-opening to hear how friends' experiences at large and small universities compared.
As a postdoc, cell biologist Heike Fölsch sought out senior people at a Gordon Conference to discuss their science — critical for getting invited for job interviews. She started her own lab at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 2002. At July's Gordon Conference on molecular membrane biology in Andover, New Hampshire, she became an advocate for her lab and its publications "to present myself as somebody with interesting theories" in the field. She finds that small conferences give her more opportunities to make an impression than her field's annual large meeting, with thousands of participants.
Veterans agree that new faculty members should attend smaller series such as Gordon research conferences, Keystone symposia or summer meetings organized by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology and those held at the University of Wales's Gregynog centre. Anything with more than 200 participants, and you get lost in the crowd, Weinert says.
Step right up
Smaller venues, on the other hand, have fewer slots for newcomers to give talks. One surefire way to obtain a booking is to submit stellar science, but there are ways to improve the odds.
Foster recommends asking the organizer for a talk. "It doesn't hurt and at least you've introduced yourself to one big name in the field," he points out. Organizers agree, but recommend doing it by e-mail, as a phone call puts them in an awkward spot. Another strategy is to tailor your abstract to the organizer's favourite topic.
Scientific meetings offer an informal way to forge new collaborations and build a reputation."What rings my bell is to see someone doing something with a different spin on it," says Weinert. He says that the best abstracts for winning a talk slot emphasize uniqueness — be it a new approach, technique or theory — and broad appeal to the field. (See Box)
Besides being great publicity for a lab's work, talks can help in recruiting. Even as a postdoc about to move, Schübeler began tacking a 'help wanted' job ad to the end of his talks. "Starting out, you are a blank page in terms of whether you are going to be able to run a lab," he says. "Your talk shows that you are in control and can manage a lab."
Getting the buzz
As a young investigator, Schübeler also hopes to get a scoop in his field. "You are still working out your projects, so it's good to have a feel of what's going on," he says. "It influences how you will publish if everyone thinks something is important to address." Fölsch notes that unpublished data get revealed at smaller, closed meetings, so these gatherings are best for keeping tabs on direct competitors.
Older scientists advise keeping low expectations and not to be too discouraged by feeling isolated at the first few meetings. Weinert suggests trying to meet only a couple of important contacts, and admits that he still feels intimidated at the start of a conference.
Now a field leader, Diamandis uses a large cancer meeting as an annual retreat for his entire lab group to celebrate a year of hard work. He notes that attending meetings consistently is the main way for researchers to move up among their peers, and to be invited to join committees and editorial boards.
Foster can see the wisdom in that. He may have made a rookie's mistake at the sales booths, but there's no mistaking the importance of attending meetings in his mind. "The biggest reason for meeting senior scientists," he says, "is that those are the people who are going to be reviewing your grants and your papers. If they know you, you'll have a better chance."
First impressions
Leonard FosterSchmoozing? I'm not so good at that. But you can't get better advertising than giving a talk.
— Leonard Foster, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
"I have the same feeling every time. It's too overwhelming, I'm intimidated, I get a little depressed, even. Then, in a couple of days, I'm in my element. It's an emotional rollercoaster."
— Ted Weinert, University of Arizona, Tucson
Dirk SchübelerI only go to small meetings in the woods or mountains where you are bumping into each other all the time.
— Dirk Schübeler, Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, Switzerland
"Go to smaller meetings in your field if you want to get tenured. The most influential people are not at the big meetings."
— Heike Fölsch, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
