You’ve made it to Salt Lake, you’ve picked up your name badge, now what? The ESA annual meeting can be simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating for student attendees, especially when you don’t know anyone. The objective of this special session is to welcome students and to provide them with the tools they need to ensure their ESA experience is positive and productive. We will begin with a short presentation discussing:

• How the ESA annual meeting is structured (e.g., the different types of talks, poster
  sessions, and social events)
• Strategies for identifying sessions most relevant to students’ scientific interests
• Sessions and events particularly of interest to students
• Effective and responsible uses of social media during the meeting
• Strategies for avoiding burnout by the end of the meeting

As students, we attend the meeting to present our research, obtain feedback, and rub elbows with some pretty awesome, established ecologists. Critical to a productive meeting experience is networking with a wide range of people and forming relationships with other students from around the country. This is not a natural skill set for most people. The second half of this session will focus on networking with fellow students to build relationships and foster future collaboration. We will provide some brief tips on how to start and maintain conversations with time for student networking. This session targets first time attendees, but advice and discussion/networking opportunities are relevant to students at all levels as well as recent graduates in attendance.