Two APECS ExCom members (Allen Pope and myself) joined by member Kristin Timm organised in true APECS style a mentor panel at the American Geophysical Union 2011 Fall Meeting, APECS presence at the Exploration station, a session and multiple posters and talks about APECS and APECS-related projects, and various guides and a calendar for first-timers like us.
Before the conference, a group of APECS members put together a guide with tips and tricks for conferences. Intended for first-time attendees at such a big meeting as well as the seasoned conference-goer, it included advice for APECS members to make the most of the AGU Fall Meeting. To help through the maze of the many events at and around the Moscone Center, APECS also put together a calendar including outreach, networking and training events relevant for polar early career researchers. And if you were lost in the sheer number of conference participants, we had a list of APECS people who were there, a friendly crowd to get started with the socialising and networking.
At the Exploration Station on Sunday we joined forces with PolarTREC and showed off polar science to the general public, who at this event got a taster of some of the science and projects presented at this huge meeting. Thanks go to Heidi Roop, Kristin Timm, Matthias Kunz, Aisling Dolan, and Sian Henley who gave their time and helped at the station throughout the day.
The mentor panel, supported by the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) and hosted in the ARCUS meeting room, was once again a great opportunity to network and ask lots of questions. Panel members included Breck Bowden, Janet Warburton, Andy Thompson, John Walsh, Valentina Radic, and APECS’ first president Kriss Rokkan Iversen. The wide range of backgrounds of the panellists, from post-doc to senior research to educator and self-employed science communicator and consultant, provided a great variety of perspectives of a scientific career and its challenges and opportunities. We filmed the discussion and will post the video soon on the APECS website, so stay tuned!
Thanks go to all who helped us along the way, in particular Helen Wiggins and Hajo Eicken for the SEARCH sponsorship, the panellists for given their time and sharing their knowledge and experience, and all the APECS folks who helped prior and during the meeting.
Sometimes daunting, but mostly just great fun, organising all this and seeing it come together was a great experience, offering brilliant excuses to nag senior scientists we always wanted to talk to and lots of opportunities to meet new and old faces and make new contacts. We’ve already started talking to the AGU Cryosphere division about continuing the APECS presence at the AGU Fall Meeting. If you think you’d like to do this at the next AGU Fall Meeting (or at any other conference), just get in touch and we’ll help you get started!
