How to Meet People at a Scientific Conference

Most students treat a conference as the talk they give plus the talks they attend. That is maybe half of what the trip is for. The other half is the people, and it is the half students most often come home without, because they spent three days sitting with their lab mates.

This post is built on an article I recommend to every student before their first conference: Joanne Kamens’s “How to Make Friends and Meet People at a Scientific Conference”, published on the Addgene blog in 2014. I follow her structure, before, during, and after the conference, and add what it means for our lab. A few of her tools have dated since 2014; I have updated those where it matters.

Why this is worth your effort

Kamens’s starting point is that a conference is the best place there is to meet people who care about the same narrow question you do. You start with something in common, and that is the easiest icebreaker there is.

Her case for why it matters is practical, and it applies to us as much as to biologists:

• You never know which conversation becomes a collaboration.
• Some of the people you meet will later review your papers and proposals, and people tend to think more favorably of work by someone they have met.
• People in your field know about grants and projects that could help your work.
• An academic career depends on being known beyond your own campus.
• Hiring outside academia runs largely on personal connections.

Her opening line could be the summary of this whole post: there is essentially no better place for a scientist to build new relationships.

Big conferences and small ones

Kamens notes that conference size changes the strategy. A large conference has more people, but it is easy to drift through without speaking to anyone. Her advice is to find the smaller rooms inside it: meet-ups, special interest group sessions, and workshops that match your topic. She prefers small conferences where attendees eat together, because there is time for real conversation.

In our area, this usually means the workshops and the technical sessions in your own track. A session of fifteen people on exactly your topic is worth more for meeting people than a keynote hall of a thousand. If you are not sure where your work fits, Target Journals and Conferences lists the venues we aim for.

Before the conference

Have a way to leave your details. Kamens recommends business cards, even for students. Her reasons are good: a card makes it more likely someone remembers you when you follow up, and handing over yours almost always gets you theirs. In 2026, a card is still worth having, but so is a QR code on your phone or badge that opens your LinkedIn profile or your page on this site. What matters is that the other person walks away with a way to find you.

Prepare how you introduce yourself. Have a general version first, then a technical one. Kamens’s point is to start broad until you know whether the person works in your exact area. A good first version is two sentences: the problem you work on, said so that an engineer in a different field would understand it, and one thing you have found or built. If English is not your first language, practicing these two sentences out loud a few times before you travel makes the first minute of every conversation much easier, and the first minute is the hard part.

Study the program. Plan which sessions you will attend, read up on the speakers, and make a short list of people you would like to meet. Kamens adds two things worth keeping: do not be shy about trying to meet someone senior, and do not overlook people at your own career stage, who are always worth meeting. Your peers now are the reviewers, collaborators, and hiring committees of the next twenty years.

Make plans before you arrive. Find out who else is going: former lab members, people you know from other universities, other students in our department. Set up a coffee or a meal or two in advance, and invite one or two people you do not know yet to join. Kamens’s 2014 tools were LinkedIn groups and the conference’s Twitter hashtag. Today, check whether the conference has an attendee app or a messaging channel, and use LinkedIn to tell people you will be there.

Bring your questions. Kamens suggests making a list of problems you are stuck on and being ready to talk about them, because people like to help solve problems. This is one of the easiest ways to start a real technical conversation. One caution that comes from Presentation Strategy by Venue: talking about what is stuck is fine; handing over a detailed plan for an unpublished study is not. The same discretion that applies to your slides applies to a friendly hallway chat.

During the conference

It can start at the airport. Kamens points out that someone carrying a poster tube is probably going where you are going. Say hello.

Make your name easy to learn. Keep your name badge visible and your contact details handy. If you remember names by seeing them, it is fine to glance at someone’s badge, or to ask to see it.

Sit next to someone and introduce yourself. Before a session starts, you and the person beside you have already chosen the same talk, which is a natural opening. Kamens’s emphatic advice: put your phone away. Scrolling in the seat before a talk is the single most effective way to meet nobody.

At meals, sit with people you do not know. Her opening line works everywhere: “Is this seat taken? Can I join you?” Talk about the food, then the conference, then the science. If you are traveling with lab mates, split up at meals. You will see each other again on Monday.

Do not only talk about work. Kamens is clear that casual conversation is how people come to remember each other. Where people are from, how they got into the field, what they think of the city: this is not wasted time.

Read the room with senior people. It is not always appropriate to walk up to a very senior researcher, Kamens notes, but you can always approach people at your own stage, and some will be friendly; stay with those. The usual way to meet a senior person is after their talk, with a specific question about it, or by being introduced. If there is someone at a conference you would like to meet and I know them, tell me before we go and I will try to introduce you.

Go to the social events, but keep your energy. Receptions and dinners are where many conversations happen. Kamens mentions that some of her best studies were designed late at night at conferences. But do not stay out so late that you are too tired to get anything out of the next morning’s sessions.

After the conference

This is the step most people skip, and it is where meetings turn into relationships.

Follow up within the week. Kamens’s list is simple: if you promised to send a paper, send it. If you enjoyed a conversation, write to say so. If you later read something the person would find interesting, send it and ask what they think.

Connect, then stay visible. Connect on LinkedIn with the people you met, especially those outside academia. When they post or change jobs, react, comment, or congratulate them; people notice. For academic contacts, follow their work: Kamens mentions ResearchGate and PubMed alerts, and for our field a Google Scholar alert on their name does the same job. When they publish a new paper, send a short note.

Plan to meet again. Before the next conference, write to the people you met and suggest a coffee or a lunch. Kamens’s closing line is the best advice in the article: “Once is just a meeting, but having lunch twice turns a stranger into a friendly colleague.”

A short checklist

Before you go:

• A way to leave your contact details: a card, a QR code, or both
• A two-sentence introduction, practiced out loud
• A list of sessions and five or so people you would like to meet
• One or two meals or coffees already arranged
• A few problems you are stuck on, without the unpublished details

While you are there:

• Phone away before sessions and at meals
• Sit with people you do not know
• At least one new conversation per session block

Within a week of getting home:

• A follow-up note to everyone you had a real conversation with
• Anything you promised to send, sent
• LinkedIn connections and Google Scholar alerts set up

Read Kamens’s original article before your next conference; it is short. If you are also presenting at the conference, Ten Habits for a Better Science Talk covers the other half of the trip.