Eoin Cremen from Cohort 4 has recently come back from a conference in New York and writes about his experience here:
“I was fortunate to have poster submissions accepted to the brother and sister conferences of Psychonomics & Society of Judgement and Decision Making. This made it a very efficient trip to New York. Overall, the 5 days went better than I could have anticipated. Psychonomics is a conference of over 2500 psychologists with many parallel tracks from different specialities. SJDM is smaller but still over 750 participants. I had never been to such big conferences and admittedly first impressions were slightly overwhelming. However, I soon met with researchers that were very influential to my work, was re-united with friends from previous conferences, and established new relationship with other researchers with shared interests.
Psychonomics began on Thursday and finished on Sunday, while SJDM began on Friday and finished on Monday. There were presentations, symposiums, and workshops. Business had stalls on site and there were small social events every evening. We were spoiled for ways to engage academically in all its various forms for the weekend.
One personal takeaway from these two conferences was a revised opinion on poster presentations. I had the impression that poster presentations were an offering to those who did not have presentations accepted. A student-oriented opportunity to get exposed to a conference setting. This undersells the value of having 90 minutes with peers who have taken the time to stop and engage with your research. It is a different, more organic conversation than a presentation Q & A. The feedback can be more detailed and fleshed out. The conversation often explores the shared common ground with researchers from a spread of institutions. The connections made, thoughts provoked, and follow-up conversations have given me a new appreciation for these sessions.”
