u/Bulky-Chocolate-5873

Edit: thanks, all, for the really great suggestions! It's really helpful :) I'll leave this post up as a potential resource for people organising conferences in the future.

What are some memorable 'nice touches' of conferences that you've been to that you wish more conference organisers would adopt? (Mainly humanities and social sciences, but also great to hear from STEM people!)

If a conference was particularly impactful to your career or just really enjoyable, was there anything about the way that it was organised that facilitated this impact/enjoyment? Are there any practices that make it easier to engage with current research in the field and properly network with people, particularly for early career researchers? I'm also keen to hear about small things like, for instance, giving out reusable coffee cups to reduce waste, or organising panels so that questions happen directly after each paper (so people can move around between panels). Also would love to know about anything that makes planning/travel/accommodation easier.

Bonus: do you have any conference organising pet peeves?

Social sciences. I have 3 publications, all co-authored, but a decent-ish funding track record. I have applied for everything under the sun and have gotten nothing and now I'm starting to think I'm absolutely fucked because my profile is shit and the longer I'm unemployed, the less chances I have of getting hired for anything.

I don't know what to do and wake up every day hoping I'll die.

Hi everyone.

I'll keep details vague so as to respect the privacy of the people involved. I'm currently applying to STEM postdocs in the UK. There is one RF post on a project that I am REALLY interested in, that fits really well with my current research, and that is led by a scholar whose work I really admire but who I don't personally know.

I looked online and noticed that a friend had been a postdoc on this project, so I reached out to ask her what she thought. She told me that she had had a truly terrible experience with the PI, and that while she felt a bit uncomfortable because she didn't want to dissuade me from applying, she couldn't, in good conscience, refrain from being honest about the awful time that she'd had.

I'm very thin-skinned and not resilient at all, so the environment she described sounds like it would absolutely destroy me. Also, I have a metric fucktonne of things to do and applications to write, so not going for this opportunity might give me some time to pursue other vacancies and try to get some publications out to strengthen my profile. I am immensely grateful for my friend's honest advice, so I don't want to simply disregard it, either, and I'm also offended on her behalf for the bad treatment she received. Because we've collaborated, I think it'll also be quite obvious to the interview panel that my friend and I know each other.

That said, this role sounds amazing on paper, and I do feel like I might actually have a shot at getting it because of how well it aligns with my research. It closes soon, and finding an academic post has been hell recently, so it also feels like I can't waste this opportunity.

But then again, if I do get it and it is even worse than the hell that finding a position is at the moment, I will be stuck in a position that is guaranteed to obliterate the little self-esteem I have left. And I would have been warned, and it would be something akin to (if not explicitly) a betrayal of my friend.

What would you guys do?

Thanks in advance.