I just got the news that one of my favorite small conferences, which was planned to be held in my home country, will be postponed until fall. It’s a darn shame, but an understandable and wise decision. I was looking forward to bringing my team here in Germany over to what still feels like home to me, at least in my mind.
I guess we can only wait our turns for September then. There are actually various positive sides to this: the two PhD candidates that will join me will have the time to turn their now still preliminary results into fully analyzed and well-interpreted results. This always makes for a better presentation and discussion. For me, personally, it means I will (probably) present a story that’s freshly published or close. In my view, this is the best time to generate attention. So in the end, strategically speaking, this move is not so bad for any of us. Even the weather is probably better in September. In fact, everybody wins.
The worst thing about the postponement would be missing out on conversations with old, current, and new collaborators, and the need for nourishing these relationships. After two years of not seeing most of them, at least not in real, everyone feels like a ghost to me. I don’t like missing out on that…
However…
I will still need to be in the Netherlands to make some important arrangements for my current experiment with people at my former institute, and I also will need to discuss plans for future collaborations. This means I will still go to the Netherlands, regardless of whether the conference will happen or not.
I think I will have a series of coffee walks instead. Bookings can be made via all the (in) official channels, on a first come, first serve basis.
And of course my team and I will be back in September for the real conference, which hopefully will be in conditions that allow for a nice conference experience.
Robin Heinen 