once upon a time at a conference

A month and a half ago, there was a conference. Big, located in the fanciest, most central conference center in Stockholm. A thousand participants from all over the world. All about the frontiers of resilience research. Organized by Stockholm Resilience Centre.

The planning had gone on for years. I jumped in about a year ago, just like most other people working at the center, everyone had to pitch in where they could. I coordinated couchsurfing for PhD students, a small handicraft station at the conference center, was part of the planning committee for one of the evening parties and for the PhD and early career researcher side event, curated some photo exhibitions. Small and insignificant things, but by the time the conference arrived, I felt like I had already used up all my conference energy on the preparations.

The actual conference is a little bit of a blur. The welcome reception in the Stockholm City Hall was nice, mainly because the City Hall is beautiful. I presented a speedtalk at a session about mapping ecosystem services. I think it went well. I chaired a poster session. That was just chaotic. I sang at a jam session and a cappella during a break. Have no recollections of that (but I was captured by a conference photographer [above] singing a Finnish tango accompanied by some SRC colleagues at the jam session, so it must have happened). Went to a bunch of talks. Don’t remember much about them. Crocheted at the craft station. I guess I should have mingled, networked, made valuable contacts for my future in academia, but my brain felt like such a jumble of odd puzzle pieces. I could not put them together to form coherent thoughts.

I guess conferencing is something one has to learn. Especially at a conference as big as Resilience 2017. Or at least I hope so. Otherwise I’m screwed.