By: Nathan Ryan
Hopefully, you're here to learn a little bit about what to do when attending your first national ANS conference. This advice is probably generalizable to any conference, but take some of the funding and logistics with a grain of salt.
If this is your first conference all together, good luck and remember to have fun!
What’s the phrase (I say in this written medium as if I couldn’t have googled it)? If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail. For conferences, I tell myself "if it's not written down, it’s not going to happen." For a conference, I think you have to go in with a written plan.
You should ask yourself what you are trying to get out of the conference (an internship/job offer, new directions for your research, connecting with future employers/mentors, or maybe you’re going because you won some award). After identifying what you are trying to get out of the experience, research the conference agenda, speakers, and topics to identify sessions that align with your goals.
Depending on your situation (with fellowships, grants, awards, or your department), your path to the conference will probably look very different than mine. The reality is that it's probably going to take some cobbling of opportunities to cover the cost of attending a conference, so you should always identify supplemental sources of aid.
For ANS National conferences, things like the Student program, division awards, and the Diversity in ANS Travel Grant are great ways to lower the barriers to your attendance. Regardless of your situation, you should reach out to other ANS students (either from your school or in our online forums) to find others to split hotel costs with you.
The Student Program will cover registration upfront and reimburse you a set amount for travel (so long as you help with a couple sessions). When you register under the Student Program, opt for the sessions aligned with your interests, and if you don't get your top pick—it's not a deal-breaker (you can always trade later).
If you're eligible, and the application deadline hasn't passed, don't miss the chance to apply for the DIA travel grant. In addition to the student program, this will fund your travel and probably a good deal of your hotel costs. You can find the application on the meeting-specific page.
I hope this is a no-duh moment for you, but I have seen students attend conferences without a written plan and end up just doing schoolwork during the day and going to the socials at night. I don’t think you should go to every single session, especially if you aren’t interested in the topic, but I'd argue that chatting with people attending the same sessions as you is an under-discussed benefit.
The biggest thing you should do is take notes of ideas, questions, and future research topics. I was in a fuel cycles session once where Monica Regalbuto (a Director of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Strategy at INL) and Eva Davidson (from the Research and Test Reactor Physics Group) made a point of highlighting the hot button questions and where they see fuel cycles research going in the future. I can’t claim to know them personally at the time of writing, but they got me thinking about some questions I later incorporated into my research and a separate class-project.
If you're in the student program and willing, consider volunteering for those 8 a.m. sessions. By doing so, you'll leave the rest of your day free to immerse in all the conference offerings (it's also a great excuse to be up and out of the room in the morning).
The Divisions within ANS hold their own virtual/hybrid meetings up to the Sunday before the conference; even if you can’t be at the conference, add your division meetings to your calendar. They count towards the student program, but, more importantly, offer valuable face time with other people working in your subfield. If you are in the student program, remember to email the meeting leader indicating your participation and request email confirmation for attending the meeting.
The Student Sections Committee (SSC) meeting always takes place at 6 p.m. on Monday, and you should absolutely go (even if you're from Oregon State and they have scheduled another social during it; yeah, I’m talking to you). Following the meeting, there’s usually another social event where you'll have the chance to mingle.
One of the big reasons people will tell you to go to a conference in person is that they are great for networking. Because it’s a human thing, I don’t think you should have a checklist for what you should do or say in each interaction to maximize or optimize anything (shocking coming from an engineer, I know). What I think people mean when they recommend conferences for the networking experience is the culmination of a couple years of conference attendance when people start to associate you with your area of work and know you. I’ll say, that is not where I am at in my career, but there are people I recognize at conferences in that way, which is a helpful foothold going into the socials.
While I acknowledge that being known or recognized is valuable for your career, I think the more immediate value to students comes if you are open to conversations and approach people with questions or to discuss shared interests. This knowledge or idea exchange is helpful if you follow up and exchange contact information or connect on LinkedIn to maintain your network. Depending on your area of interest and school, you might be like me in that there’s only a handful of people whose work overlaps with yours. It’s great to connect with people at your school, but other institutions approach the same topic differently. I think it follows that expanding your network outside of your school will push you in new directions for your work.
Dress in business professional attire, as this is an opportunity to make a positive impression on potential employers and peers. Keep in mind that, depending on the conference and crowd, the idea of professional attire will vary wildly. I will maintain that I don’t think you can be overdressed—that could be because I like having excuses to dress up.
I’m not going to say you should bring copies of your resume, it’s not something I have tried, but you should be prepared to discuss your education, skills, and career aspirations. Not every job interview is a job interview if you catch my drift. Visiting the exhibition area will give you opportunities to talk with company representatives and potentially find internship or job opportunities, but you might sit next to them at lunch or be in line with them for coffee.
Check out this Business Attire guide for specific clothing recommendations.
In an increasingly digital world, you may not be interested in a physical card that has your information on it, but they are still a common at conferences. You might be wary of printing hundreds of cards with your current institution, but you can get around this by putting your intended graduation date on the card. Try to keep the information general, use a personal professional email, your phone number if you want to, and maybe the link to your website (if you have one).
I have employed a tool made by a good friend of mine and fellow nuclear engineer, Madeline Lockhart, to add a QR code to my business card called Skanz. I also have a QR code on my phone so people can download my contact information or resume on the spot. She isn't paying me to say any of this I am just a big fan, and the people you share your business cards with will be too!
With these tips in your arsenal, you're ready to make the most of your conference time. It's going to be a long couple of days, but in a very valuable for your career. My biggest takeaway is that you should be proactive with new experiences and people. I hope to see you next time!