Meetings and conferences can be inspiring 🛸 or boring 😴, uplifting 💃 or depressing 🕳️, informative 🤔 or dull 😶. It is not surprising that we meet all kinds of characters at a conference.
🗣️ The first-time speakers 👔. Mostly students, impeccably dressed, very nervous but eager to learn from this experience. Seniors have mercy and be kind with your questions! Challenging is fine but not being nasty ☝.
🗣️ The veterans 👴. They have seen it all. Their talk is peppered with personal stories, told in husky voices, sometimes full of self-irony. They can be kind and curious about young students, offering a little advice here and there, but some are not so nice.
🗣️ The coffee consumer ☕☕☕. Downing one coffee after the other, at a coffee table and talking to study buddies from thirty years ago.
🗣️ The nonchalant speaker 😎. They show up late, sit in the rows at the edge of the lecture hall, open their notebook, work on something (probably their talk), close the notebook, get up and disappear. They reappear after a while at a different, but similar spot, repeating the same procedure, then disappear again …
🗣️ The seeker 👀. They can be spotted by their craned necks, constantly turning right and left, looking for someone. For the entire conference, and probably ever after.
🗣️ The busy buddy. They sit behind you, and hammer into the keyboard of their notebook at about 90 decibels 📢, making it hard to follow the speakers. Get up and find another seat!
Do you know more typical meeting attendees?
#ScientificConference #LifeScience #Scientists #Research
Author: asban
Leave A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.