When you’re in the midst of a scientific career, conferences are often your best opportunity to get out and meet other science-minded people, discuss your work, and get a feel for what your colleagues are doing. Often though, conference attendance becomes focused on a relatively narrow band of topics related to your field of study. That’s not to say, for example, that the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting (30,000+ participants) doesn’t cover a million and one different ideas and projects, but clearly there is a definite focus. And that’s great, neuroscientists need to talk to other neuroscientists, but there’s a lot of value in stepping outside your field as well.

I spent last weekend at the Northeast Biology Graduate Student Conference, a small regional biology conference that alternates between locations in northern New England and the Canadian Maritimes. NBGSC is organized by the graduate students of the host institution, which was the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine this year, and provides a wonderful forum for graduate students to discuss their work, regardless of their field or how far their project has progressed. I attended last year as well, when it was up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the NBGSC conferences have been a highlight of my graduate career. I’ve learned so much about the ecology of my local landscape, the diversity of research going on in my part of the world, and just a whole bunch of neat stuff. I gotta tell you, it’s fun being one of the only people representing your discipline, and to introduce what you love to a crowd of cool people. I got to learn about conservation strategies for wildlife, how ecologists gather data, using remote sensing to study the ocean, the genetics of milk production in cows, and spread the gospel of cellular neurotoxicology. Plus you get to hang out afterwards!

So, don’t miss the opportunity to hit small conferences, especially local or regional conferences, and step out of your research area. You’ll learn a lot, gain a wider appreciation for the scholarship being conducted on an incredible range of topics, and probably make some new friends. And if you’re up in the northeast with us, NBGSC will be back in Canada next year, and will be (as always) a fantastic time.