We started out the day with a breakfast at the Corinthia Hotel with Madeleine Jacobs who discussed chemistry careers, her personal story in great and fascinating detail, and the importance of gaining leadership skills and networking to move ahead in our chosen careers. Ms. Jacobs told us she would even set aside time in her busy schedule to personally talk to us if we would like. Now that is something you do not see too often by people who are CEOs of companies. I think other companies can learn from her example to take time to really listen and help their employees (or in this case members). Then on to the conference to hear the plenary talks, oral presentations, and present my poster. The discussion of publishing in JACS by Peter Stang and Sonja Krane was very informative. I learned a lot more about services provided by the ACS which will be very helpful to me as I begin to look for employment in academia.
The poster session went well and throughout this conference there was no shortage of good food and a variety of drink options. The one area I would like to see improved upon is the scheduling of talks. Since we have to navigate on three floors, we have to leave talks before they are finished and I don’t want to seem rude in leaving, but I also do not want to be late for the next talk. Also, if some talks go too long and we have to leave to get to the next talk in another room, or if some talks start earlier than I arrive, some of the continuity gets lost. If we had 5 minutes between each talk to allow for time to get to rooms on different floors and locations, this would solve the problem of leaving too early or arriving late. I do realize then that the entire day would either be longer to accommodate the extra time, or less talks would be scheduled to keep the same length of time for talks for each day. Just my thoughts on this.
I am really enjoying this conference and finding that the people I have met have been very friendly and positive people.
