Conference Time: ASM 2010 Pre-Trip

Tomorrow morning I leave for the American Society of Mammalogist's 90th annual meeting. All this week I've been preparing for my trip-- making sure my presentation is polished, gathering up every nice scrap of clothing I own (admittedly a pretty small pile, seeing as how my field seasons are spent in Carhartt's and t-shirts and my time on the ranch in jeans), and making sure I have print-outs of everything that might be important, including the schedule (I present on Sunday) and a University of Wyoming  campus map.

Earlier this week I met, for the first time in seven months, with my undergraduate thesis adviser, Walt. I'd emailed Walt a couple weeks ago and told him about my plans to present at ASM, and he decided, yesterday morning, that he wanted to make sure I was prepared... More than anything, I assume, because his name's on it, too. I went by his office for a few minutes after work, more to reassure him about my presentation than me. It wasn't a waste of time, though, because I got the opportunity to bug him about working on our manuscript (which has been sitting on his desk now for more than a year) in person!

Everything looks good presentation-wise and I'm ready to go. I don't get nervous at all about presenting or about public speaking in general. In fact, giving talks on scientific subjects is one of my strong suits, developed, perhaps, from years of tutoring. The hard part of the conference, for me, will be meeting people. I'm more than a little bit socially anxious. I find it extremely difficult to just walk up to someone and introduce myself. I'm that person at parties who stands in the corner and is visibly nervous, or the person who tails a friend around everywhere.

No, wait. Scratch that. I'm the person who avoids parties altogether.

Uh, yeah.... Awkward.

It'll be a little tough not knowing anyone at the conference, but I'm hoping that will help force me to try and make a few acquaintances. I also made the choice to stay in the on-campus dorm housing, with an assigned roommate, instead of reserving a hotel room. This way I won't be able to retreat too far away from the activities, and, if I'm really lucky, I'll have a friendly, outgoing roomie to help break the ice.

It's an irrational fear, and I realize that, it's just one I've never quite been able to overcome. I keep reminding myself, though, that I'll be in my natural element-- a scientific forum of sorts packed with other people a lot like myself. If nothing else, I should have more than a few things in common with just about everybody there. And really, that's what conferences are for, right? Meeting people, discussing research, and networking.

I don't know if I'll have time to post updates from the meeting itself, but if not, I'll be sure to write a full recap next week when I get back.

Funny enough, despite my concerns about five days of social overload, I realized this afternoon that the biggest worry I have about attending ASM is the fact that I'm going to miss a barrel race tomorrow night, and I won't get to ride Belle for five days. :)