by Hannah Bryant – Ph.D. candidate at University of Edinburgh, UK
The European Geophysical Union conference, by definition, is varied, interdisciplinary and trying to cover a lot. For this reason, I don’t think there is much which can prepare you for the sheer volume of science on the first day (unless you might have attended a Beyonce concert recently!). Despite this, we have tried our best to gather some of our best tips (with anecdotes along the way) for attending your first EGU. We hope this also applies to other big conferences you might attend!
Our tips for EGU (and big conferences in general):
- Bring a portable charger. The conference was seriously lacking in socket points, especially if you want to take notes on your laptop during the long afternoon sessions, so I spent many afternoons hunting down free spaces to plug in.
- Everyone says this, but try not to push it too far! If you feel your brain drifting, walk down to Papstwiese Donaupark and enjoy the silence. Bonus points if you see the tiny tiny train!
- If you can get the train to the conference, do it, but book early (or get the interrail pass as it saves lots of that vital research grant). I got the train to Vienna from London and was perhaps slightly ambitious with a few transfers but on the whole it was a very smooth experience!
- Go to talks and side meetings not in your field. I learnt the most from the sessions which were brand new to me, like the intersection of Climate and War and how historical reconstructions of climate can be used to understand human movement patterns in the 1400’s.
- Try, if you can, to figure out your schedule before you get to the conference each day.
- Download the app before you go to EGU. This year, the app didn’t work on the Apple software version I was at so I had to camp out in a cafe with wifi to try and do a full software update just to download the app.
- Most of all – enjoy it!