On June 4th, a Sunday afternoon, over 40 Early Career Scientists (ECS) embarked on an exciting week of sea-ice research through the MOIN side event hosted by APECS Germany. The side event was part of the IGS Symposium on Sea Ice in Bremerhaven.
The two-hour session of networking and onboarding flew by swiftly. The first half of the event, held at the Nordseemuseum at the Alfred-Wegener Institute, revolved around fostering connections. Initially, we introduced ourselves during an engaging round of “speed dating”. Next, we delved deeper into getting-to-know each other based on our discipline (e.g. ice mechanics, atmospheric research, biology etc) or the methodologies we employ (satellite remote sensing, modelling, field work, etc).
During the latter half of the event we talked about conference survival skills. We wanted to tackle some concerns early career scientists might have when attending their first (or second) conference. We brain-stormed together practical tips for effectively navigating three potentially uncomfortable situations:
- Approaching senior scientists you wish to engage with.
- What to do when no-one comes to your poster or how to prevent that
- Overcoming the fear of missing out and mastering conference time management.
Together, we could collect a bunch of really helpful tipps that we want to share with you:
Concluding the MOIN event we walked through sunny Bremerhaven to join the event’s ice breaker on the scenic location of the Schulschiff Deutschland.