NOLA AGU Guide for First Time Attendees

Welcome! We’re glad you’re here! This guide was put together by members of the American Geophysical Union Hydrology Section Student Subcommittee with help from the wider AGU community in hopes of making the AGU Meeting less overwhelming. The tips below are based on experiences from veteran attendees about what they’ve learned over the years. This guide is meant for everyone, and not one section in particular. Many of the guides and tips are also applicable for virtual attendees too! In this guide, you’ll find information on some things to pack, what to wear, what to bring, how to interact with people, and things to see and do. We look forward to seeing you at the AGU Meeting!

Before the Conference:

What to pack (in-person):

• Comfortable shoes and clothes -- you will be walking about 5 miles a day and be on your feet a lot. Comfortable shoes are key! Also, many people will be wearing jeans and button down shirts. Do not feel like you have to wear a suit. 

• Water bottle and hot drink thermos

• Masks, tissues, hand sanitizer, cough drops, and cold medicine. Interacting with tons of people plus lack of sleep, stress, and travel will be hard on your immune system.

• Backpack so you can keep your hands free

• Snacks to munch on during the day

• An umbrella or a rain jacket - something handy just in case

• Warm jacket, hat or scarf – New Orleans can have cool weather!

• Some way to access the schedule -- phone with AGU Events app downloaded (Google or Apple), or printed

• Pen/ notebook/ computer to take notes

• Business cards (if you have them) to pass out to prospective jobs, connections, and new colleagues

  
  

Planning out your general schedule (in-person):

• Give yourself time to get from your Hotel to the Convention Center

• Look at the Scientific Program in Advance and use the “My Schedule” tool to make your schedule and export it to Excel or your calendar (there is a walk-through on this in the appendix).

• Account for how large the convention center is and factor in 15-20 minutes to get around. The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is long, and it can take a substantial amount of time to walk between sessions.

• Find some sessions that are interesting to you (both in and outside your area of study) to just sit at and listen. Hopping between talks in different sessions gets exhausting. 

• Attend the various mixers/ socials/ trivia/ networking events that are put on in the evenings throughout the week. They’re a fun way to meet people!

• SCHEDULE BREAKS -- AGU is a big conference with a lot of people and things to see and do. Don’t run yourself ragged by trying to do and see everything. Give yourself time to rest. 

• There is so much cool research happening and you might learn something!

  • Walk through a poster section that’s not your own. AGU is a massively diverse scientific community

• You do not have to stay for the whole session, you can come for a single talk or two, but make sure you are courteous when you come and go (i.e. between presentations). 

  
  

  Planning out your general schedule (online):

  • Make sure you have the correct time-zone showing online

  • Look at the Scientific Program in Advance and use the “My Schedule” tool to make your schedule and export it to Excel or your calendar. (Walk through on this in the appendix)

  • Give yourself breaks so you don’t burn yourself out 

  • Find some sessions that are interesting to you (both in and outside your area of study) to just sit at and listen. It can be tricky to hop virtually between sessions and talks

  • Try to see if there are talks you can watch in advance that speakers have loaded so you can come ready with questions!

  • There is so much cool research happening and you might learn something!

    • Find an online poster section that’s not your own. AGU is a massively diverse scientific community

  
  

  Reaching out in Advance (in-person and online): 

  • Email people you want to talk to before the conference and try to schedule a lunch or coffee break with them at the conference.

  • Connect with old colleagues and friends as well!

  • Ask your advisor ahead of time to introduce you to some more senior scientists

  • Reach out to H3S members or more senior PhDs or post-docs in your group and ask them to be your conference buddy and help guide you around!

  • Virtual attendees: schedule watch parties with others in your lab 

  
  

  At the Conference:

  Socializing/ Networking:

  • The line to get your nametag on the first day will likely be long… either try to get it the night before (they might have check-in at the airport), or wait until mid-day on the first day to avoid the lines.

  • Use poster sessions to network! Everyone is already chatting and socializing, find a group and join them!

  • Include yourself in conversations where you know some people, like chats at the poster halls -- don’t be afraid to start conversations with the more senior scientists!

  • Get to know your peers! They will be your future colleagues that you might write proposals with and collaborate with in the future. They are as important as the big names in your field

  • Ask people if you can join them for dinners or coffee breaks that you’ve been chatting with.

  • For virtual attendees: find online programs to connect with other virtual attendees

    
    

  Appreciating the Science

  • Reflect daily. At the end of the day (or first thing the following morning), write down the most interesting/exciting thing (or two things) you learned that day and why. At the end of the week, rank them.

  • Take notes so you can stay engaged and remember the science later!

  • Be sure to check out the Town Halls, Named Lectures, and Plenary Talks

  • Use the AGU app or conference website to ask questions!

  
  

  Other General Tips:

  • Get familiar with New Orleans public transportation map

  • Don’t carry too much stuff with you, your neck and back will thank you

  • Go to the exhibitor hall! -- tons of free swag and fun place to shop around, and explore

  • DO NOT FEEL OBLIGATED TO DRINK ALCOHOL. Many events in the evenings will offer alcoholic beverages, but that does not mean you have to drink. And do not let anyone peer pressure you into it. Non-alcoholic options will be available! 

  • Don’t tell anyone where you got your shoes from - it is a well-known scam in New Orleans!

  • Make sure you find people you do know and spend time with them. They’ll help lessen the feeling of isolation.

  • Virtual attendees: still schedule coffee meetings with others and engage as much as possible in hybrid and online sessions

  • Other tips: GeoEd Trek First Timer’s Guide

  • Check out the Best Practices Guide from Biogeosciences DEI Steering committee

  
  

  Schedule and Scientific Program:

  • General format of the program

  • How to read session codes

    • Sessions look something like: Letter##Letter-##...

      • First letter is the section (e.g. H for Hydrology)

      • First number is which day it is (e.g. 1 is for Monday, 2 is Tuesday…, etc. )

      • Second number is the Block Number

        • Block 1 8-9:15 am

        • Block 2 9:45 to 11 am

        • Block 3 12:45 to 14:00

        • Block 4 14:30 to 15:45

        • Block 5: 16:00 to 18:00

      • Second Letter is the session

      • Last numbers are the ID number for the talk, poster, or eLightning presentation

    • So, a poster with the code: H35O-1203 can be read as “Hydrology Section, Wednesday, Block 5, Poster #1203

    • An oral presentation with the code: H32E-08 can be read as “Hydrology section, Wednesday, Block 5, Talk #8

  
  

  Things to see and do in New Orleans:

  • Visit one of the many parks in the city!

    • For example, Jackson Square

    • Located throughout the city (free)

  • National WWII Museum 

    • 9 minute walk (ticketed).

  • New Orleans Pharmacy Museum

    • 26 minute walk (ticketed)

  • Audobon Insectarium & Aquarium

    • 15 minute walk (ticketed).

  • Art Museums

    • Located throughout the city

  • Visit the historic French Quarter

    • 30 minute walk (free)

  • Black Owned Businesses

  • Women Owned Businesses

  • More

  
  

  Food and Drink Scene:

  • Try a beignet from Cafe DuMonde (or elsewhere)!

  • Good eats near the convention center

  • Try a po’boy, étouffée, gumbo, and/or jambalaya

  • Bourbon St and the French Quarter -- lots of great food and drink options along here

    • Have the famous Hurricane (can get the alcohol-free kind) at Pat O’Brien’s 

  • Have a drink at the Carousel Bar inside Hotel Monteleone

  • Haunted Pub Crawl

  • Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar -- oldest bar in the US

  
  

  Highlighting your talk/ poster

  • Promote your talk, poster or session with a cool graphic!

  • Share details about your talk/ poster on Twitter!

    • Use hashtags like #AGU25

    • #H3SatAGU

  • Tell your friends about your talk/ poster and encourage them to come.

    • Return the favor by attending theirs

  • Have collaborators, advisors, PIs plug your talk at the end of theirs!

  • Invite people you meet at AGU to attend your presentation and be sure to attend theirs! It's a great way to build connections, network, and learn new science!

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Appendix:

Scientific Program Information

What is the Scientific Program?

The “Scientific Program” is a very important resource for Fall Meeting. It is a schedule of all the different presentations and events, with times, rooms, presenters, and descriptions. With tens of thousands of events on the schedule, it can be daunting! Here are some tips to help navigate it and find the events for you.

How do I find it?

The Scientific Program can be found on the AGU Fall Meeting Website. Click the “Schedule” tab up top, find the “Scientific Program” subtab, and select “View Program”. That will take you to the Scientific Program. In the upper left corner, click the “Sign in” button to sign into your AGU account. This will allow you to develop a schedule and connect with presenters.

How do I keep track of the talks I’m interested in?

You can create a personal schedule, “My Schedule” and save talks and sessions you’re interested in and download that schedule to access later. If you know what section you want to browse, select “Browse by Sections” and click on the desired section. It’ll pull up all the sessions by that section in order of date and time. If there is a session you want, click on the ‘+’ next to it and it’ll turn into a calendar icon with a check mark (see below). If there is a specific presentation (oral, eLightning, or poster) within that session, click on the session title, scroll down, and you’ll see the individual presentations with the same ‘+’ icon to add that presentation to your calendar. 

If there is a talk by someone you know, select the ‘search’ button on the scientific program side bar and type their name. Select the name, and you can see the presentations they are authors on. Select those individual presentations to add them to your schedule.

When you have finished adding the talks, navigate to the calendar button with a check mark at the top of the page and select it. From there, you can see the session you have added to your personal schedule and can download it as ICS (for calendar), XLSX, or PDF (see image below).

Downloading your schedule allows you to avoid navigating the scientific program during the conference which can get overloaded.