December 7, 2017
What #myfirstAGUtalk shows us… the need for a safe, civil, and supportive environment
Posted by Laura Guertin
can we get a thread going for #myfirstAGUtalk ?
— Jeremy Hoffman (@jer_science) December 5, 2017
We each have our own memory of our first AGU meeting presentation. Some of the postings on Twitter recall more humorous moments (eating at The Stinking Rose the night before) and some that naturally cause presenters to be nervous (dropping an entire box of overhead transparencies on the way up to the front of the room). I am fortunate that mine was such a positive one.
It was 1999… #myfirstAGUtalk was a poster titled “Useful URLs for encouraging introductory-level students to choose geoscience and marine science careers” and the session chair organized a lunch with all the session presenters. Great mentoring from the start!
— Dr. G (@guertin) December 7, 2017
But not everyone is sharing on Twitter such a glowing review of their first AGU experience. The negative tweets have not been about the size of the conference, or getting lost in the convention center. These tweets represent experiences that stay with the presenters years beyond their first talk or poster. I encourage everyone to read and reflect upon this sampling of tweets to ensure that AGU is a civil and safe meeting for everyone, where all presenters (from first-timers to more seasoned) feel supported and part of the community.
In the questions after #myfirstAGUtalk a Very Famous Scientist said my work was 1) wrong 2) trivial and 3) previously published [by him]
— Kate Marvel (@DrKateMarvel) December 6, 2017
#myfirstAGUtalk was actually a poster. First person to show up tells me: “nice job, too bad someone did exactly the same 10 years ago”. Spent the rest of the day hiding #theregoesayearinmylife
— Victor Pinto (@sircrovax) December 5, 2017
At my #myfirstAGUtalk, the moderator neglected to learn even my basic bio and just said “Next up is Gretchen.” I was already in a session with more senior folks so this just underscored my minimal qualifications. I’m sure my confidence matched. #AGU17
— (((Gretchen Goldman))) (@GretchenTG) December 6, 2017
At #myfirstAGUtalk (which was year 6 for me as I presented several lab & personal posters years 1-5), it was insinuated in Q&A that I was a student (I wasn’t) & clearly wasn’t familiar with Researcher X’s work (Research X was co-author). I corrected both (male) in my responses.
— Jessica McCarty🎄🍷 (@jmccarty_geo) December 6, 2017
Last year was #myfirstAGUtalk and my OSPA poster judge was very clearly biased against my research (long story short I do field based and he does model based research) and he essentially rejected all that I had done. Overzealous Postdoc. Not the best @theAGU exp.
— Carie-Ann Lau (@CarieAnnLau) December 6, 2017
During #myfirstAGUtalk i was the presenting, but second author. The moment the audience figured out i wasn’t the super famous first author, everyone left.
Looking forward to #mynextagutalk at @theAGU #agu17 😉
— Tim van Emmerik (@TimVanEmmerik) December 6, 2017
And there are more tweets that capture discouraging experiences. For this year, I hope all first-time presenters have the following outcome:
Loving the stories here: #myfirstAGUtalk! For #AGU17 let’s remember to be kind, supportive, and constructive.
— Ruth Chaves Heindel (@RuthHeindel) December 6, 2017