Another ASHG has passed, where 9000 geneticists gather to hear/present/discuss the latest and greatest in human genetics research. This year was in sunny San Diego, a welcome improvement from Orlando in 2017, with abundant food, drink, and activity options outside the overly air-conditioned conference center.
As a trainee, ASHG can be overwhelming and intimidating. There are so many concurrent sessions, it’s impossible to make it to everything. Further, as an early-stage scientist, I very much feel like I am still learning how to be ‘picky’ about what talks I go to, and can barely keep up during the whirlwind 10-15 minute talks to begin with.
However, I do think I learned some lessons from last year that served me well this year to have a comprehensive and fruitful ASHG. Here’s my 5 survival tips:
These talks are always tempting to go to because the titles sound impressive and they are usually given by someone famous or someone from their lab. However, the rooms are always packed, because people have heard of the dataset, speaker, or lab. If they go much into methods at all, it’s usually old-hat (we did a big GWAS again), and they don’t have time to go deeply into results anyway (we’ll maybe tell you about one interesting gene). The talk always ends with “here are the things we found with this massive dataset, but we still need more samples.” My advice: just get the highlights from these talks from people on twitter.
My first year, I would be running from session to session trying to catch the talks I wanted to go to, and as a result often miss the first 2-3 minutes of a talk after sprinting across the convention center and trying to find a seat in a crowded session. Missing the first couple minutes can be extremely detrimental to understanding the talk, and it is difficult to switch my attention and focus on a completely different area of research. This year I tried to stick to hearing 2-3 talks in one session, maybe switching to a different session half way through. Sitting and listening to ~1 hour of talks in a common subject area allowed for more ‘deep listening’ and greater understanding of the results. Along these lines, don’t attend certain talks just because you think you “should” attend them if they are poorly presented or you aren’t learning anything. Some of the most memorable talks were found popping into the session next door if I was bored in my current session, and were often outside my area of research but presented well.
It’s simple, but vital. It doesn’t matter how sharp you are, most likely all the interesting info from a talk is in one ear and immediately out the other. It can be tough, but I try to take at least a few notes from every talk that I attended (handwritten). Then, on my plane ride home I type up my notes and include the original abstract of the talk. This helps me organize my thoughts and commit more to memory, as well as make notes to follow up on questions I had. This year I also plan to revisit the slides (where available) of some of the talks to enhance my notes.
Because it’s pretty much impossible to attend every talk you wanted and have your brain/legs not be completely mush, it’s ok to skip that talk you really wanted to go to if you are making connections. Feel free to continue conversations struck up with a poster presenter or company rep over a cup of coffee. If you recognize someone who gave a talk you liked, go up and talk to them more about their research. People won’t remember your face in the audience, but they will remember a conversation you had, even if it was brief.
I tend to have a serious case of “fear of missing out,” or FOMO, when it comes to conferences – I don’t want to miss “the” hottest talks, or dinner and bar nights out with the lab, in case I miss the latest results or the opportunity to make a great connection. Last year I woke up every morning feeling a little hungover or sleep deprived and not at my best, which severely limited my bandwidth the next day. This year I went to one party (thanks, 10X genomics), and had some great dinners or drinks with my lab, but I also prioritized having a couple one-on-one or even solo meals to recuperate. This helped me protect my ‘battery life’ so to speak and be high-energy when I was in group settings, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss out on anything life changing.
All in all, however you do it, a conference is a successful one if you come back to your desk after 5 days of non-stop science inspired and excited to do more science!