This week I attended a 2-day online conference - Student Futures and Research - run by The Linnean Society and The British Ecological Society. With tickets at just £5, I think it was the bargain of the year.
Prior to the start of the event, the organisers (students themselves) set up a Discord group with all of the attendees. This allowed me to connect to people's LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. I met SO many interesting and valuable people, albeit virtually. Regardless of my new professional connections, I think I have found some lovely people that I hope will grow into friendships.
This was my first time having a proper go at 'networking'. I actually found it super fun, and I thought 'I am spending my time wisely right now'. I can't stress enough how valuable it is to spend time attending webinars and conferences and engaging with them effectively, and I would argue that them being online over the past year has had a massive, perhaps positive impact. Normally, I would be far too shy to engage with hundreds of strangers. But there is something about being behind a screen which dissolves my insecurities, and allows me to be myself without worrying about being awkward.
The conference itself was completely inspirational. Each individual talk was applicable to me, especially the initial Rewilding talk by Dr Chris Sandom, who offered plenty of insight into places to volunteer or research, which I have since applied to! Despite it being just 2-days long, I now have a giant Word document full of links to follow up on, and societies to follow on LinkedIn and Twitter to further expand my network.
One of the highlights of the conference was the way that the organisers engaged the attendees through competitions, including 'Best Nature Meme' and 'Best Photo'. I was delighted when I found out that I won an Oxford University Press sponsored prize for the best fake or real thesis idea! Organisers of the event, I am so impressed at how smoothly everything ran and I'd love to get involved in something like this myself.
I was slightly sad to see that the Discord foundation would be closed down due to the end of the event. I took it upon myself to create a new 'server' - over 40 people have moved over to it to create our own post-conference network!
The people you get to engage with at events like these are utterly life-saving. I have even had advice on my dissertation. If it wasn't for online events like this, a good percentage of students would be far too introverted to branch out and speak to new people. This enables people to make these, perhaps life-changing connections all from the comfort of your own home.
Massive thank you to the Linnean Society and the British Ecological Society for the event, and to my new online friends I have made from the conference who gave me the inspiration to start this blog.
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