Is anyone going to the AGU 2011 Meeting this December?

[InquilineKea]

I'll be there. I won't be presenting - I'm there more to meet with prospective advisers.

[UnlikelyGrad]

Not this year. I hope to go next year though--I think it would be cool to share a room with my sister (who almost always attends, but is skipping this year). We'll see what my advisor says about that though: she's not too keen on AGU.

[waddle]

I'm not going this year, either.

[InquilineKea]

Not this year. I hope to go next year though--I think it would be cool to share a room with my sister (who almost always attends, but is skipping this year). We'll see what my advisor says about that though: she's not too keen on AGU.

Wow - why isn't your adviser keen on AGU?

[katerific]

I'm going to AGU.

I don't know about Unlikey's advisor, but I know that a lot of people don't like AGU because it's too big and often difficult to network. You have 20k people in all these different fields--very overwhelming and hard to catch all the people you want to meet and see the talks you want to go to. On the other hand, at really small conferences, it's easier to introduce yourself to people.

That said, I still love AGU because it's fun and I always learn a lot.

[InquilineKea]

Oh cool - what session will you go to? Are you presenting?

I'm mostly going to the exoplanetary atmospheres one.

[katerific]

I'm not presenting. Even though I do love presenting, it's nice to not have to worry about giving a poster or talk....

I usually hit up sessions in PP, OS, MGC, GEC, etc.

[UnlikelyGrad]

I know that a lot of people don't like AGU because it's too big and often difficult to network. You have 20k people in all these different fields--very overwhelming and hard to catch all the people you want to meet and see the talks you want to go to. On the other hand, at really small conferences, it's easier to introduce yourself to people.

Yeah. That's basically what she said. She only had me present at ACS this year because it was local and so there were basically no travel costs--normally she has people present at smaller conferences.

[Kitkat]

I'm rather sad that I can't go to AGU this year. It was originally the plan until our data got delayed. But on the upside, it looks like I will still get to go to a regional one (GSA) in March.

[mandarin.orange]

I am going to AGU for the first time, and presenting! After years of attending GSA (and a bit of a hiatus from academia), I am super stoked.

Unlikelygrad, I think you need the experience at least once. I have been getting so many emails about breakfasts, receptions, and events just for students. For my specific field, they sent me a template to complete with the main points of my talk, and they plan to show all these as a slideshow at a reception. They seem super supportive towards students on that front.

Interesting comments on the "character" of different society meetings. Again, I have historically been to GSA, but the last one I attended (in Portland), while it had cool field trips and Portland is a great city, was absolutely crap for my subfield, with barely any sessions.

My MS advisor has made a move towards attending AGU more and more, and I've heard other friends make the same comment - they find the science higher-caliber. The big news I heard out of the last GSA was this nonsense. Several classmates from my master's are paleontologists, and were really up in arms about how much this "junk science" made it to the media, rather than all the other sound science surely present at the meeting.

[waddle]

Just saw this about rock hammers: "It is also increasingly common to see authors put together a string of nouns to construct

what they believe is a more educated or profound name for a very simple thing, such as a

“single component rock sample acquisition system” (five nouns to mean rock hammer)." (from https://www.e-education.psu.edu/styleforstudents/c10_p2.html)