Hello!
Science communication is a crucial pillar of research. Previous posts have frequently reflected on ways to share scientific findings with our community, in writing or orally through research articles or conferences, for example. Importantly, not only should new knowledge be disseminated with other scientists who can further the work, but research should also ultimately benefit our society and, therefore, be translated into practical applications. On this note, I recently attended ASBMR and ISBM meetings, the first overseas conferences of my doctoral studies, in Toronto, Canada, and I was fascinated by the strong presence of industry leaders and medical doctors who were eager to learn the latest scientific data that can impact their decisions at work. Last year, I attended a conference in Europe that had similar topics. Still, there was a palpable difference in the atmosphere and structure of this conference, which was truly inspiring to witness. Therefore, I would like to share some of the most impactful takeaways I learned from this experience.
1. Exploring communication styles
2. Establishing new connections
Exploring communication styles
First, I have a few thoughts on how to communicate science. My work is primarily computational, strongly focusing on developing new methods and pipelines to analyse data. Yet, at the conference, the focus was predominantly on biological findings. It was inspiring to hear established professors and clinicians debate medical treatments I had only seen described in papers, discussing their effectiveness and ideal use cases. Or listen to graduate students focused on advancing our understanding of critical pathways involved in pain, bone loss or metastasis, to name a few. Besides, to give the most people a chance to share their work, there were oral presentations, rapid fire talks, poster presentations, and a gigantic poster hall where people could walk through hundreds of posters. This diversity of topics and presentation methods pushed each presenter to make the best use of time available and highlight their key findings. Even during invited keynotes, I admired how presenters introduced and supported their stories with different styles. Additionally, using the organiser mobile app, it was straightforward to plan the day ahead and pre-select all the sections and posters I was interested in attending or visiting, which would also help identify which institutes were researching topics that intrigued me.
While discussing with my supervisor, he helped me identify and appreciate some of the techniques used during these talks. For instance, given the limited time available, many presenters would confidently display slides full of data, plots or tables and simply state the key result these were supposed to show. As long as the story maintained its flow, this technique would visually impress the audience, which would inevitably believe what was being said since it was challenging to interpret all data in such a short time, and iteratively build on previous results to reach the final conclusion. Alternatively, others opted for more educational talks with complete schematics of the biological question or pathway being studied and how the project would investigate it. Finally, my favourite, a few presenters also aimed at sharing a single key message with the audience through clean slides with interpretable visual elements that developed from each other (like animations or progressively more complex plots), which helped the audience understand and follow the entire presentation.
Establishing new connections
Next, I really enjoyed the openness of the attendees to network and, more simply, to meet new people. Given the large number of participants, it did not take long to find a topic of interest every day and meet like-minded people who shared the same interest in technology or area of research. Not only that, I was fascinated and grateful for the supporting attitude, especially by early career investigators or recently appointed professors, to talk to junior researchers and share their experiences to reach their current positions. Besides these spontaneous and fruitful interactions, the conference organisers had also planned several sessions to meet Professors who are leading experts in their fields, enabling a much closer opportunity to learn and discuss best research practices in these areas, as well as career development workshops where junior researchers could meet and talk to established professionals at different positions and institutions (journal editors, industry founder, funding agency leader, for example).
On a more personal level, I am also extremely grateful for the new friends I met at this event. While it may seem such a short period, the fact that we participated in several social events together and were all excited to learn about each other’s backgrounds made this whole experience so much more memorable to me, with a special mention to the 9941 steps walking together through the city. What a wonderful moment!
Team-building
Finally, such conferences are an excellent opportunity to get to know co-workers better, which is often overlooked or more complicated daily. Since we are in a more relaxed environment, sharing personal experiences and strengthening connections is more effortless. Additionally, we also had the chance to spend time with our professor, and it was great to hear his stories of how he met so many of the leaders I was seeing for the first time or what it was like attending such conferences when he was starting his career. I am incredibly grateful to him for the opportunity to participate in such an enriching meeting that enabled me to grow professionally, scientifically and personally.
Conclusion
After a long week of meeting new people, listening to the latest scientific advancements and travelling across the pond, I could not be more excited to continue my work and produce new and exciting results. It was a memorable experience, and I look forward to more opportunities to participate in scientific meetings.
Please feel free to share your thoughts about the conferences you have attended!
Have a great day!