The European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2019 is about to open its doors. With less than two weeks time, we would like to provide a small guideline if you attend this EGU GA 19 for the first time and/or if you are an Early Career Scientist (ECS). We, that are your Geomorphology (GM) Division ECS Represenatives: Michael Dietze and Annegret Larsen, together with the ECS Rep team members Eric Pohl, Andrea Madella and Edwin Baynes.
EGU what?
The EGU GA 19 is looming. If you are interested in the full story, here is a comprehensive 72 pages pdf version. A shorter, very condensed version, ideal for EGU first timers is the guide located here.
Once at the meeting, you can stay up to date with a series of channels:
- Your personal programme, which you should create via the EGU GA 19 website prior to the meeting, and which you should link with the EGU App on your smart phone, will be your main guidance. You can of course print the programme, but we strongly recommend using the App, for a long list of reasons.
- The meeting’s newspaper EGU Today will provide daily highlights of the Meeting, keep an eye on the online documents.
- Social media channels like the GM Twitter account and the GM blog will be vibrant during the meeting and provide you with updated information.
Where am I?
- The EGU badge will be your ID for the conference and your public transport ticket for the duration of the conference from Monday to Friday (8–12 April). Ideally, you have already received it via mail or you can pick up in the reception, opposite of the main entrance, during the Ice breaker on Sunday, or together with a looooong queue of people on Monday at 8 am.
- The EGU App will be a very handy item on your smart phone. It gives access to the entire program, all session details, allows scheduling and a lot of other fine stuff. It also holds the floor plans to prevent you from getting lost in the venue.
- Getting to the conference centre will be easiest by subway U1 eastbound to Leopoldau, exit Kaisermühlen-VIC. From there, just follow the stream of poster tubes. Try optimising the number of foot steps by finding the best entry points to the subway.
GM Division essentials
When planning your personal programme, there are a few events that should definitely not be missing. Here is a short list of the most essential ones:
- Short course: How to navigate the EGU (Mon 8:30, Brown level, Room -2.16). If this GA is your first one, then that course is a must. Get all the essential information an looks behind the scene.
- GM Division Meeting (Thu, 12:45, Brown level, Room G2). This is the time and place when all your Geomorphology colleagues will gather to share information and make decisions. Lunch bags will be provided. There is almost no reason to miss this session, even if it collides with other scientific sessions.
- Medal lectures, Bagnold Medal lecture (Thu, 19:00, Brown level, Room G2) and Arne Richter Award (Mon, 16:15, Brown level, Room G2) and Penck Lecture (Wed, 12:45, Brown level, Room G2). All three lectures are enlightening and we shall do our best to honor the medalists.
- Meet EGU. If you were ever wondering who the GM division is, who your ECS Reps are and if there are questions you ever wanted to see being addressed, please find us (Tue, 15:45, EGU Booth, venue pathway).
- EGU Job Centre. If you are looking for a job or have a position to be filled, look here.
- Short Courses. There is a rich selection of short courses, with GM focus and beyond. Here is our general short list, tailored to GM ECS
- Meet the Expert, an experienced scientist sheds light onto his/her trail to the current position, the detours and crossroads, with a personal flavour (Wed, 10:45, Brown level, Room -2.31).
- Crowd Solving Problems, after a perfect start last year, this workshop will continue bringing together young people to a special kind of ECS event (Wed, 19:00, Brown level, Room -2.62).
- If you are interested in further short courses, here is a list.
Make the most of the meeting
- Unsure about poster, PICO or talk presentation constraints? Here are some presenter details. Beyond these, please take care to staying in time (12 min talking, not more, 2 min PICO introduction). Be present at your poster, even if you also want to see other posters. Leave a note at other posters to catch up with the presenters. Take the things you did not like about others home with you as a rule not to make these mistakes on your own in the future, but always give constructive and friendly feedback.
- OSPP (Outstanding Student Presentation Prize) is a prize for ECS which will be given based on at least three reviews by more experienced scientist. Thus, make sure you are at your poster to be eligible and add the OSPP label to it (ask at the help desk or get it here). The review will be based on a set of criteria, including scientific relevance, timeliness, appropriateness of methods, sufficient background, aesthetic appeal, style of presentation. So make sure you address these points effectively.
- Keep yourself and others happy
- Bring your own water bottle (or buy an EGU one), avoid rubbish. 15000 people will create a lot of waste. You can do little bits with big impact. Tap water is of perfect quality, fountains and dispensers are available all over the place.
- Respect people’s privacy and the work they present. Ask them before taking pictures of posters or slides, take care not to take pictures of unnecessarily large groups of people behind off your focus. Take a look at the EGU photo/no photo policy.
- Behave at the drinks spots, please! It is charming, of course, but it is more charming to start discussing with other people, isn’t it? You will have plenty of opportunities to visit Vienna later on where the beer is very affordable.
- Keep service rooms and rest rooms in good shape.
- You can try to squeeze out the most of the session programme or stay alive even after days by taking breaks and not perform intra-session hoppings.
- Look beyond your typical area of expertise. EGU is great in bringing together a wide variety of disciplines and ideas. Make use of this chance, do not stick to fields you already know, but explore links to other disciplines
- Find your times to relax and lean back (photo competition), parks outside (beyond the big houses to the North, beyond the main road, incl. volleyball court
Now it is over?
You might think everything is over after the Friday afternoon poster session. Well, at least for GM things go on, even after the Friday evening.
- Steepest Descent is a workshop the Saturday after EGU, bringing together people devoted to Earth surface dynamics in a friendly atmosphere, with breakfast, coffee and lunch. Bring your poster to put it up and discuss during the workshop, again.
- Give feedback (last year: https://egu2019.eu/EGU2018_survey_results.pdf). It is so important to take a few minutes and digest what you have liked and what you would like to see improved next year. There will be an online form which allows you very efficiently to tell the EGU Programme Committee and Copernicus your feedback. Please help us with this.
- Consider running an own session or short course in 2020. If you feel, organising and convening a session or short course would be a cool thing – it is! It exposes you to an interesting cycle of brainstorming, organisation, advertising, planning and interacting with people. If you think you want to propose an own session, do so keeping in mind the main rules and ideas.
So, finally?
We hope this blog helps you ECS to have a better EGU 2019 experience. We are very much looking forward to see and chat with you in Vienna. Have a great time and fun with preparing your contributions.
Your ECS Rep team
This post was written by Micha Dietze and Annegret Larsen (GM ECS Representatives)
