• It’s okay. EVERYONE is overwhelmed. I ran into people who are here for the first time (myself included) and people who have been coming here consistently for the past few years, including researchers at the top labs, professors, senior PhD students, and postdocs. All of them seem tired and are trying to juggle multiple meetings/events at once. There are simply way too many things happening at the same time, and you cannot get to all of them even if you had all the energy in the world. So it is okay to feel a bit overwhelmed, but do not let it get to your head. Creating a general list of events you are interested in, a day or 2 in advance, really helps.

• You can just go up and talk to people. Do not do it if they seem busy with something (talking to someone else/in a meeting/tweeting on X), but if you see them walking around, you can just try to go talk to them. Most people are usually nice and will at least say “Hi” and make some formal small talk.

• Preparing yourself mentally to be extra proactive and telling yourself to have an increased social battery is also very helpful. A lot of people are more approachable (potentially more than they usually are) during the conference and are willing to “openly” discuss research.

• Some people are not very nice to talk to about research. This is the harsh truth. While most people are extra nice and approachable during the conference, there is a small subset of people who might come off as stand-off ish or a little arrogant. It is fine to run into such people. I somewhat enjoy talking to such people also; it gives me a nice sense and a touch of reality and reminds me to stay humble and continue doing good research.

• You will probably be better off going to poster sessions if you want to get a general idea about what research is happening in the community and if you want to find collaborators/people doing similar research. Poster sessions tend to be very information-dense and give you a chance to browse through various topics and put a face to the names of people you might have read about while doing literature reviews.

• Go to social hours hosted by companies. It is a semi-informal way to meet researchers that you would not usually run into. It gives you a chance to meet them in person, discuss your research, and ask them directly for any collaboration opportunities. You will be surprised by the people you can see/find at such events (everybody loves free food/drinks lol) and the kind of connections you may form.

• Find some time to enjoy the city outside of the conference. Given that the conference can be a bit overwhelming, take a step back and admire the city itself. Go eat at a good restaurant, try out local cuisine/snacks, and visit local tourist attractions. Along with some key research papers/ideas, these are the things you will truly remember in a few years.

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Yuval Kansal
PhD @ Princeton University