Conferences 101: A Guide for MD and PhD Students
Conferences 101: A Guide for MD and PhD Students
For MD and PhD students, national conferences are enormous opportunities that, when done effectively, can enrich your training in a multitude of ways that have profound impacts on your career trajectory. These are settings in which the science and medicine driving our passions really comes to life. Conferences can thus hold an incredible density of meaningful interactions, exposure to amazing work and ideas that impact your own thinking, and environments that allow you to really begin to understand and also define who you are as an aspiring physician/scientist. But to truly get the most out of attending an academic conference, you need to approach it with some strategy. In this post written for MD and PhD students who may be newer to academic conferences, I’ve outlined my tips for what that sort of strategy looks like and how to apply it for yourself.
Lesson 1: Do Your Homework
If you’re going to a large national meeting, there may be thousands of people attending over multiple days and a highly complex itinerary with many events occurring simultaneously. To navigate this complex web of people, events, and opportunities, you need to put in some work mapping out for yourself what your most important priorities are to attend at a given time, and this is highly dependent on your specific interests and goals. Often, major meetings have web platforms or apps that allow you to build your own schedule, and you should absolutely use these when mapping out a basic schedule for yourself. You are probably a busy student, so this planning might be occurring months in advance, or it might be occurring in your hotel room at 11pm the night before. If the conference will feature major symposia or sessions that are relevant to your research focus or covering areas you want to learn, by all means you should attend these. However, mapping out your conference itinerary solely based on titles and descriptions of sessions being offered will only get you so far; to delve deeper into the true benefits that conference participation can offer, you’ll need to get down to the level of individual human beings.
Ultimately, fundamentally, conferences are about people. The reason conferences exist at all is to gather people from many different places to exchange ideas and further dialogue about important topics in the represented fields. Your connections, collaborations, and relationships with people in these fields will have a profound impact on your career in countless ways. Particularly if your goal is to stay in academic medicine or scientific research long-term, then you will have many important transition points in your future that will require you to have a network of mentors, connections, and collaborators who can help guide you and advocate for you in important spaces. Building strong relationships with a global community of physicians/scientists will be crucial for you, and thus much of your homework in preparing for a national meeting should be about meeting with specific people. This can feel intimidating and overwhelming at first, but with time you’ll develop your own strategies for conferences and will have a strong ability to understand what works for you. There are many different ways one can benefit from connecting with specific people at a conference, so here I’ll provide some open-ended questions you can ask yourself to start identifying those people:
Are there any giants or rising stars in my field at this meeting? Will any of their lab members be at the meeting? Are there any specific labs or physicians whose work interests you at this meeting?
Are there any of your group’s collaborators from other institutions at this meeting? Are they presenting?
Who from your own institution will be at this meeting? Do you know anyone at this meeting?
Are there any places or institutions you’re interested in training at or ending up at someday? Are there people from those institutions there? For MD students, are there current residents, faculty, department chairs, or residency program directors there? For PhD students, are there PIs, program directors, or current lab members there? Are they working on things you’re interested in?
Your answers to all of the above questions are possible people you should consider directly reaching out to. If an institution or PI is particularly interesting to you, make it a priority to speak to multiple levels of trainees there - AKA if there is a specific lab or physician you would be over the moon to train under someday, willing to move to a new city to be with them, etc., then that is a super important person/lab for you to connect with at this meeting; go to every single lab members’ presentations, ask the trainees how they’ve enjoyed their time in the lab and if they are accepting new trainees, connect with the PI, reach out by email asking to get coffee, and generally do everything you can to connect with those people in person at the meeting.
How exactly to go about this?
Be resourceful - Scan the people presenting at all the sessions of interest to you. For sessions and areas of interest to you, look up the people presenting them, read about their background, and read what institutions they’re at. You can also approach it the other way - if you have specific people of interest to you independent of the conference - search their names and their lab members’ names in the conference attendee list. Consider leveraging GPT to draw up lists of people that it’s a priority for you to connect with. The amount of effort/energy you spend on individual people for this part really depends on your level of interest and what your goals are in connecting with them. If someone is really important for you to meet - you should reach out by email with a brief introduction about yourself and highlight anything you have in common, then ask if they would be willing to meet with you for coffee some time during the conference for a short mentorship meeting. Many people will say yes! However, if they are a later-career or very well-known person or will only be in town for a short period of time, they may not be able to meet or may not even respond; in this case you may want to try meeting with one of their lab members. You also do not need to individually email every person you’re interest in meeting at the conference leading up to the meeting. Though you should absolutely reach out to people that you think it would be extremely beneficial to meet with, this is not very practical beyond a small set of people and that’s perfectly fine! Basically you should tailor how much time/energy you devote to meeting specific people to how important it is to you to meet with them. Also do not sell yourself short!! Nobel laureates, members of the National Academies of Science and/or Medicine and other very prolific scientists and physicians absolutely are willing to meet with students, but if you do not reach out and try, there will never be a chance for this.
Lesson #2: People With Whom You Share Pre-Existing Commonalities Will Be Easier to Connect With
With any new person you’re meeting, forming a quality connection will depend on your level of interest in them and their level of interest in you. There are many ways to illuminate these shared interests, but one thing I think is important to be cognizant of at conferences is that people with whom you already share some sort of connection to (i.e. shared mentors/collaborators) will often IMMEDIATELY have a much stronger vested interest in getting to know you than someone random. You will probably be much more memorable to these people because they will connect you to their existing framework of experiences, and I think because of this, they are more likely at baseline to say yes to possible asks you later make of them (asking for a rotation, future meetings, mentorship, collaboration, even letters of rec if you get to know them well). Also the fact that you can interact in-person and face-to-face with this person, in the setting of a professional conference is an excellent foundation for making a very positive first impression with them. Making quality connections like this can get you very far, especially if you cultivate them over time and different settings - if you have the opportunity to reconnect with these same people at multiple meetings, you can quickly build very powerful longitudinal relationships. Thus, the point I want to emphasize here is that it’s going to be much easier to build quality connections with people with whom you have pre-existing shared circumstances. It is worth your time, to some degree, to prioritize meeting with these people in person at conferences. You should ask your PI or physician mentor whether they have any connections or collaborators attending this meeting, and ask them to introduce you; these are very reasonable asks and they demonstrate you are really taking control of your own education and trying to acquire new connections and insight that will enhance the work and effort you’re able to offer in your current role.
Do Not Underestimate the Value of Connecting With People at your OWN INSTITUTION at National Meetings
In addition, as important as it is to leverage conferences to meet people you don’t otherwise get to be in-person with, ironically, conferences can also be very powerful opportunities to build or strengthen connections with people at your own institution. For major national meetings where your institution is well-represented, it is not uncommon for there to be some sort of a dinner or social event that your home institution organizes near the location of the conference. Attending something like this can be incredibly high yield to you as a trainee, as there are frequently high-profile faculty from your institution here, they are in a great mood being wined and dined and may be more blissfully removed from the relentless torrent of clinical and research responsibilities that consume most of their time back home. Furthermore, they obviously care deeply about the institution you are at, and the setting of encountering you not at your home institution, but rather at a national meeting where you are representing your institution and showcasing yourself to a national/international audience, is a very positive distinguishing feature that can be beneficial in terms of your faculty connections and institutional support at home. Thus, ironically, to get to know some of the most important people working in your same building or campus, you might just need to fly a thousand miles away and attend a hotel reception! I’ve had numerous positive experiences during my training attending dinners and receptions exactly like this, but sometimes it can be very difficult to access them - often because you don’t know they’re happening. My advice to you is to be very proactive and communicate with your own PI and anyone/everyone from your institution attending a national meeting and ask them if there are any social events planned for people from your institution, and if it would be possible for you to attend.
Lesson #3: Combine Your Passion with Engagement
Genuine passion for a topic combined with making the effort to engage people directly at conferences is a very powerful combination, and absolutely crucial for effectively navigating a major meeting. And if you haven’t recognized this yet, a very important thing for you to realize is that no one is going to know who you are if you do not walk up to them, introduce yourself, and shake their hand. This can be scary and intimidating for trainees, and I think one of the major causes of that fear is the misconception that you need to have it all together and appear smart to others. Instead, I believe one of the most crucial qualities required to go far in science/medicine is becoming comfortable with not knowing things, with being wrong, with being stupid, and with failing. These things may sound bad at first, but what they actually are is a badge of honor that says you are incredibly open to learning and growth, and openness and humility are the true requisites for mastery; any scientist or physician worth their salt will recognize that and will not look down upon you for being confused or saying you don’t understand. Thus, you must learn to let go of your fear of looking stupid or being wrong in front of smart people; we are all stupid and we are all frequently wrong, and the smartest people on Earth are grains of sand in comparison to the true complexity of human biochemistry. Instead, again I turn back toward passion; allow your passion to drive you to engage people at these meetings whose work interests or inspires you; this absolutely requires effort, but if you can train yourself to do this - to wait around after inspiring talks, after the mass of 300 people has left the room and there are just 10 people in a small huddle wanting to talk with the keynote speaker - you will find yourself making incredible, meaningful connections with brilliant people, and to me this is one of the most special parts of conferences; the ability to have impactful discussions with amazing minds who think differently than you do.
Next, I also want to introduce what I believe is the most powerful, even transcendent phenomenon that can occur at conferences: serendipity.
Lesson #4: Serendipity at Conferences Can Change Your Life
I was waiting to speak with a particularly inspiring keynote speaker who had just given a mind-blowing lecture on cutting-edge technology mapping T cell receptors recognizing tumor neoantigens and revealing an entirely new framework by which synthetic TCRs could be constructed to melt tumors. Several hundred people had now filtered out of the room and left the session, and about a dozen people remained, standing in a semi-huddle, waiting their turns to speak with the keynote speaker. Ten minutes passed, and not much movement was happening in the line; some of the people in my huddle made some small talk in remarks about the speaker’s talk and gave their thoughts and impression. I overheard a man next to me making some interesting remarks and questions about how tumor antigens were being presented on MHC complexes (a topic I am extremely interested in), and I responded back with some of my own thoughts. He had more interesting things to say, and I had a lot of questions, then ideas for experiments that would allow us to assess some of the proposed tumor antigen biology we were speculating about. This man from the huddle and I continued talking - I had no idea who he was, and our conversation went on 20-30 minutes, both of us completely forgetting our original objective to talk to the keynote speaker. It was completely serendipitous. At the end of our conversation, he thanked me greatly and asked what sort of trainee I was and I shared. “You should strongly consider rotating with us - here let me give you my card.” I nodded, not sure where he was but open to the possibility, and he had to run. He handed me his card and walked away. This random person I had enjoyed a wonderful discussion with about tumor antigen presentation was a neurosurgeon and director of the brain tumor center at a very, very prominent institution. I was shocked, and then in a way relieved that I hadn’t known this during our conversation - it was purely about a topic that captivated us, and without a doubt, my passion for the subject matter had left an impression when I wasn’t even trying to. At a different meeting, a similar serendipitous conversation that began spontaneously at a poster session has now resulted in a collaborative paper that’s accepted and an invitation to complete an away rotation at an institution of significant interest to me. I do not share these stories to boast - I share them to illustrate the wonderful experience of serendipity at a conference, and how if you focus on your passion for topics you’re genuinely interested in and make the effort to genuinely engage people, sometimes when you’re least expecting it, serendipity can occur at these meetings in ways that can profoundly alter your career. I hope that all of you get to experience wonderful moments of serendipity at conferences, too.
Lesson #5: Mechanics of Navigating the Conference Itself: Poster Sessions, Oral Talks, and Trainee-Oriented/Career Development Events
It’s 6am; your alarm goes off in your hotel room, and it’s time to get dressed, wait in a long line to pay for overpriced hotel coffee/breakfast, and head over to the conference for the opening sessions. Get ready for a big day!
In this section, I will cover some bread-and-butter things about conferences that can help you come prepared and know what to expect. If you’re at a large national meeting, there will probably be a massive number of sessions occurring concurrently, thousands of people walking around the conference site, and the area in which the conference itself is held may be enormous; you might find yourself walking an entire mile to get to two different sessions!
Attire
Dress professionally. If you’re unsure what exactly this means, aire on the side of dressing more, rather than less, professionally, especially if you are presenting. Given that you will likely be doing a lot of walking throughout the day, pick footwear that is professional but comfortable.
Representing Yourself Well
Represent yourself with professionalism and integrity with everyone you meet. When you are first meeting someone you have no idea what role(s) they may play later in your career, and some of the most powerful connections you make are ones whose significance you are completely oblivious to when they’re first occurring.
Show Up
There are so many opportunities, activities, and events at conferences. If you want to get the most out of a conference and open yourself up for impactful or serendipitous experiences, you need to show up. Yes it is exhausting, but if you are tailoring your itinerary to things that are of specific interest/curiosity/passion for you, it should also be a lot of fun!
Poster Sessions
I absolutely love poster sessions, because they gave you opportunities to have face-to-face conversations with a wide diversity of scientists, physicians, and trainees, and I think poster sessions are really really amazing for networking with these people. These are also where you’ll find a lot of trainees in labs you are interested in; you can thus use poster sessions to track these people down, learn about their lab’s work, and ask how they’re enjoying their time in the lab; you can also ask to meet up with them separately or get their contact information to learn more.
Oral Talks
At a large, national meeting, keynote speakers and major plenary sessions with oral talks are where you’re going to see the ‘greats’ of the field giving their talks, as well as rising mid-level faculty who are going to be stars sharing some of their groundbreaking work. In these settings you will see some of the most amazing talks/impactful work you’re ever going to see, and taking the time to stick around and try to converse with the speakers afterward can get you some connections with very big fish.
Social Media
Having an up to date linkedin can also help you maintain connections with people you meet at conferences. Although not everyone in academia uses linkedin and I do think it depends on personal preference, I do think that LinkedIn if done appropriately (only posting major career updates/accomplishments) can build your network over time and lead to more exposure and opportunities. If you are presenting at the conference, you should absolutely post a photo of you at your poster or oral talk and share this on your professional social media so that people in your professional network possibly also attending the meeting can see you’re there too.
Other Trainees
You should try to connect with other trainees at the meeting - it could be grad students from your own institution, or it could be trainees you meet at workshops specifically for people in your training stage. There are often dinners or evening sessions oriented toward trainees like this at national meetings - though be warned there are also often limited spots and sign-ups for these things that can fill up quickly! If you get a spot, great, and if you don’t, that’s okay, too - poster sessions are a fantastic way to meet MD and PhD students, and I encourage you to grab contact info for people you click with, and try to grab lunch, dinner, or drinks with them - this can be a really fun way to bond with and get to know other people who, probably like you, are in a new city and may not know a ton of people at the meeting. I have made lots of wonderful friends and connections with grad students and med students around the country simply by being engaging and asking if anyone is interested in doing anything around the city or grabbing dinner/drinks that evening. You will be surprised how much these connections can also impact your career and network!
Lesson #6: The Conference is Just the Beginning
After you’ve attended the meeting and are likely exhausted, in the days/weeks after returning home, you should revisit your notes from the conference, important connections you’ve made, contact info/business cards you’ve picked up, and send followup emails to connections that are important to you. Extending your relationships with colleagues and mentors longitudinally is how they can grow into quality, enduring relationships, that can serve as crucial sources of support, guidance, mentorship, and opportunities throughout your career. For the vast majority of these opportunities that come later on, you will have no idea they’re going to occur at first, so do not underestimate the significance of seeking out brilliant people that inspire you at all stages and all places, and asking them for mentorship/career guidance meetings once or twice a year.
This is long post and it’s time to wrap it up. As you can see, there are many superimposed layers of opportunities occurring at large conferences, and I hope I’ve effectively illustrated some points that will allow you to maximize the yield you get out of attending a major meeting.
