How to connect with yourself and others to get the most out of JSM and other large conferences
CAS Members: Nels G. Johnson, Jon W. Stallrich, and Lili Tian
The primary purpose of conferences is to connect people with shared interests or experiences so they can accomplish their goals. JSM is a large conference with many attendees. The theme that connects them is simple: statistics. For such a simple theme, the goals attendees have for what they want to get out of the connections they make will be quite diverse. For new attendees, it can be difficult to identify what their goals are or what is even possible, not to mention who or what they will need to connect with to accomplish them. Large conferences are impersonal and, for the new or infrequent attendees, can be a challenge to figure out. JSM is like most large conferences in that it provides two primary venues for connection: presentations and mixers. The third implied way to connect is to invite people out for lunch, dinner, and drinks (which sometimes will require planning). A fourth very important way to connect not just with attendees but people in general is the conference location.
New or infrequent attendees to large conferences may find this process overwhelming, as they may not be clued into everything that happens at the conference or the subgroups that form to make a large impersonal conference more personal. The goal of this article is to provide some simple suggestions we, the authors, have found helpful for navigating this process. A lot of it will sound obvious, but very often it is not when you are first starting out.
First, if you are a first-time attendee, we encourage you to utilize systems put in place by conference organizers to help those with the shared experience of first-timer. At JSM this means signing-up for the First-time Attendee Orientation and Reception and attending the JSM Opening Mixer and Invited Poster Session, both of which are usually on Sunday. If you are a student, attending the JSM Student Mixer on Monday is also a good idea. We invite you to join us at the CAS mixer and career development social on Tuesday, July 30 from 2-3 PM in room H-Granite A. CAS is the Committee on Applied Statisticians and throughout the year we sponsor a number of professional development activities, such as webinars, geared towards applied statisticians.
Having the opportunity to connect with those our community has deemed its best thinkers and visionaries is one of the best aspects of attending large conferences like JSM. The named lectures and featured speakers at JSM are an easy way to identify who some of these people are. The featured speaker lectures at JSM are titled: The ASA President's Invited Address, The Deming Lecture, The ASA President's Address and Awards, and The COPSS Awards and Fisher Lecture. The Wald Lectures is a particularly interesting series of lectures at JSM as no other speaker will be given as much time to talk about and develop their chosen topic. It's like a short course when done right.
Connecting with those with the same subject matter interests is another valuable aspect of any conference and sometimes difficult to do when the conference is large like JSM. Seek out talks and mixers sponsored by the ASA sections and other organization that are relevant to you. The JSM online program (https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/jsm/2019/onlineprogram/index.cfm) has a keyword to sift through the overwhelming number of abstracts. Introduce yourself to others and be ready to talk about your professional activities. Keep in mind, even among other statisticians it is often best to start discussions at a technical level appropriate for readers of the magazine Popular Science. Don't forget your business cards, if you have some.
For students and early-researchers, JSM presentations can sometimes make you feel inadequate due to the mathematical and technical details some presenters choose to include. Unless the presentation is about an area you are intimately familiar with, you should not expect to understand everything. If you become lost or disinterested, you can focus on other aspects of the presentation to improve your own presentation skills. For example, take notes about the things you like and dislike about the presenter's speaking style, slide construction, and how the presenter interacts with the slides.
Connecting with your friends and colleagues, particularly once you may no longer see often can be another wonderful part of attending conferences. If one of them is giving a presentation, consider attending to provide support or generally check up on what they are working on. If you are giving a talk, consider asking some of them to attend. Go to the mixer of your alma matter or workplace if they sponsor one. If this is not an option for you, find a friend or colleague and ask if you could join them at theirs.
Conferences can be exhausting experiences. Consider connecting with yourself and attend some presentations that are "for fun" or important to you beyond the subject matter. For example, a talk on statistics in sports or popular culture, or a talk by or about someone whose work you really admire, even if unrelated to your own. Alternatively, take some time to experience the conference location itself and the surrounding area, particularly if you can tie some vacation time to the trip. Attending a local sporting event (notably baseball at JSM) or museum is a popular pastime among many conference attendees. JSM routinely takes place in some of the great cities of North America. Take advantage of that if you can.
Thus far we have tried to avoid making any value judgement about how you should personally choose to connect with yourself with others at conferences as a new or infrequent attendee. That said, if you are attending for the first time there is a good chance many of the connections that will benefit you the most are with people who you are unfamiliar with. So put yourself out there and be open minded.