Early Career Microbiologists’ Forum Update: The inaugural ECM Summer Conference 2018

When he took office, a key aim for outgoing President Neil Gow was to bring early career scientists to the forefront of the Society. The ECM Forum Summer Conference, held in June at the University of Birmingham, came at a great time for this. It highlighted the work that the Society puts in to benefit those at all career stages, as well as showcasing the research being conducted by early career microbiologists.

Poppy Stevens and Ashley Otter are both early career researchers who gave talks at the Summer Conference. I caught up with them to get their views on the inaugural event.

Why did you decide to submit an abstract to the Summer Conference?

Poppy Stevens (PS) I had only ever given flash talks outside of my university and really wanted to get some experience presenting to an audience in a supportive environment. I also wanted to increase my visibility as a researcher within my peer group and get feedback on my ideas from other fresh-faced early career researchers!

Ashley Otter (AO) I have attended similar events run by the Society for Applied Microbiology and found it really useful. It was great to build connections to other microbiologists at similar stages in our careers.

What were you expecting from the event? Did it meet these expectations?

PS I was expecting it to be a bigger and more formal event, which is a professional way of saying I thought it would be scarier! In the welcome talk it was pointed out that the only principal investigator (PI) in the room was the keynote speaker Adam Roberts, which was a good move – the atmosphere instantly felt more relaxed, helping people get involved in the discussions.

AO I expected lots of other ECMs there and it was great to see so many from across the UK.

What did you take away from Adam Roberts’ keynote session?

AO It was great to hear from Adam that you don’t need to follow the unwritten rules of moving around or have consistently positive results to have a successful academic career. The Q&A was really useful, with lots of really helpful insights from Adam.

Do you have any advice to early career researchers who might consider submitting an abstract for the Summer Conference 2019?

PS Do it! Even if you don’t have many results and just want some feedback on your methods, it’s a great place to give your first conference talk and ask your first conference questions. I also found that giving a talk made networking easier, as people came up to ask me about my work.

Did the Summer Conference change your opinion of the Society?

AO Yes, but in a good way. It’s great to see the Society starting events focused around ECMs, as many of us want to stay in academia. At some big conferences, ECMs can sometimes find it difficult to find others at similar stages of their career, whereas through events like this, collaborations can easily develop in the future.

Would you recommend the Summer Conference to other early career microbiologists?

PS Absolutely – particularly if you’re quite intimidated by the process of conferences and networking, and as a safe forum to ask people who have been in your position (and who don’t know your supervisors) questions about their different career paths.

Finally, what were your personal highlights from the event?

PS I have two – firstly, getting to know other PhD students at the poster session and barbecue. Talking about the joys and difficulties of doing a PhD with other people going through the same thing, without just talking about the science, was really great. My second highlight was the keynote from Adam Roberts and the Q&A session after, which went on far longer than it was supposed to because the discussion was so good!

AO I personally enjoyed presenting my work, and it was great talking with many other ECMs about the work I’ve done and what they are doing. I came back from the conference with lots of new ideas to try as a result of bouncing some ideas with other ECMs.

Did you attend the Summer Conference? Do get in touch with us if you have any feedback or suggestions for 2019.

Rebecca Hall

Communications Representative, ECM Forum Executive Committee

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