TERMIS - Reflections and Diary Links

Good afternoon! Now I've had some time to get settled back into the swing of things at home I thought it'd be quite nice to round off my TERMIS coverage with a bit of an overview of what I got out of it. My diaries mainly focussed on the things that actually happened, rather than the bigger picture of what I've taken away so here's a look at what I distilled from my experiences.

What did I learn?

• Most obviously, I picked up lots of new scientific information from the conference, which is exactly what you would hope to do. However, it's hard to guarantee how much you'll pick up before hand, as you only really know what you'll get out of a talk once you've seen it. 
• I'm not half bad at networking, especially if I break myself into it bit by bit. In the event of nerves, wine and cheese help!
• Drama techniques are fantastic to apply to presentations. (I presented at my old college today and that found not warming up made a big difference)
• Practice really does make perfect. It really felt good to be able to present on auto-pilot as it took a lot of the stress out of the experience.
• Conferences are as much about the social events as the presentations because these are where you make contacts and start collaborations. However, that means during the social events you are actually working, so you don't have chance to fully relax! I wasn't very well prepared for the social program to be so intense, but next time I will be.

What will I do next time?

• Take my own notebook. At TERMIS I just used the supplied paper in the conference pack, but it wasn't very good and I didn't really have enough, so next time I should just buy some and not be such a cheapskate!
• Write up useful notes as I go along. I had a full day of writing my TERMIS ones up when I got back and I don't want to do that again!
• Take a tablet, not a laptop. Tablets turn on quicker and are great if you want to flick through your slides without changing them or check e-mails.
• Practice, practice, practise any presentations. It's totally worth it.
• Be prepared to stay out late and party (for science of course).
• Try not to be afraid to speak to someone, people may not feel comfortable starting a conversation, but they will often join in if you kick things off.  
• Have a spare pair of suitable shoes! My feet got a bit shredded by the shoes I took and I didn't have an alternate pair of flats to wear.
• Get more involved with the young scientists program. I didn't get around to doing the mentor meet and co-chairing of seminars that the SYIS program offered, but next time I should make the effort to get involved.
• Poster harder. I didn't hit up the poster sessions as well as I could, so next time I need to focus less on the food and more on the posters!
• Take time off after the conference. I got home from Italy on Saturday night and I was back at work on Monday, but I think I really could have done with an extra day off to help me recover. I don't feel like I was very productive at work last week so it would have been better to write a day or two off as leave so I could've had a day to myself to just just sit and relax.

Just in case you missed my conference diaries the first time round my day 1 diary is here, my day 2 and 3 diaries are here and my day 4 and 5 diaries are here!