Are you attending the #EGUGeneralAssembly for the first time? No worries! We’ve got you covered✅! This #Geoblog by Hazel Gibson shares all the tips you need to make the most of #EGU25.
👉 Check it out here: https://egu.eu/17SHWA
P.S. Stay tuned for further conference updates!
Europe’s biggest geoscience conference, EGU25, is just over one month away! Each year, the EGU General Assembly brings together over 19,000 researchers, scientists, academics and journalists to discuss and share the latest developments in planetary exploration, Earth observation, polar science, climate change, natural hazards, and much more. And it is held at the Austria Centre Vienna (ACV) which is big enough to confuse even the most directionally gifted of us! If this is your first time attending the EGU General Assembly, we would like to make your experience less overwhelming and more fulfilling, so you can make the most of our exciting science. So read on for a quick first timers guide on how to plan for your conference week. Choose the best registration for you. There are many kinds of registration you can pick – including virtual and on-site options. The full list is available here on the EGU25 website. If you are attending on-site and you book your registration before the close of the Early Bird cut-off at 13:00 CET 31 March, your name badge will also be mailed out to you ahead of the meeting – saving you time (and queues) when you arrive! When you register is also the place that you can choose your stickers that will be displayed on your name badge (remember to check this before 31 March if you want your name badge mailed out to you). Set up your profile to help you make connections at the meeting Your personal profile on the EGU25 website is like your digital business card at the meeting. It makes it easier for people to connect with you before, during and after the General Assembly! You add stickers to your profile too; highlight that you are a first time attendee, or if you are looking for work, as well as your Division and EGU journal affiliations! You can also add your pronouns to your profile, especially if you don’t have a photo attached. Book your travel and stay NOW Vienna is a hub for conferences and tourism alike, and EGU25 alone is expected to bring in up to 18,000 participants to the city! This means fierce competition for accommodation and travel, so we recommend booking right away if you haven’t already done so. If you are able to, EGU always recommends travelling by train to the conference. The international rail network across Europe is fast and regular, and a beautiful journey, especially the closer you get to Vienna. Check the ÖBB website for information (or use third party websites like trainline.eu to discover information about connecting travel across countries). Our favourite way to travel is to use the NightJet lines and the EuroNight lines, which are a series of sleeper trains that allow you to travel overnight. The network is constantly expanding, but places book up fast, so check now to see if there is still any availability on your route. For those travelling by plane to the conference, a top tip is to look for flights to Bratislava. The Slovakian capital is only 80 km away from Vienna and well connected via bus, train and even boat! Bratislava airport is served by a good selection of low-cost airlines and it’s often cheaper to fly there than directly to Vienna. A bus ticket between the two cities can cost as little as five euro (if booked well in advance) with the average for a return train trip being around 14 euro. If that’s not enough to persuade you, it’s worth factoring in a little time to discover the city. It’s a warren of quaint little streets, an imposing castle and good, affordable beer and food. Last chance to sign up to EGU’s mentoring programme! Don’t just limit your conference experience to attending presentations and mingling within your own circle. EGU25 offers the perfect opportunity to broaden your professional network – whether on-site or virtually. If social media is your thing, the #EGU25 conference hashtag is a great way to stay current with the meeting as well as connect with others to find out about their work. We also strongly recommend signing up to be a mentee with EGU’s Mentoring Program. This unique program supports first-time conference attendees (mentees) by pairing them with experienced mentors. Register here before 17 March. Download the EGU25 app The EGU25 General Assembly mobile app will be available two weeks prior to the General Assembly. Check the EGU25 website for release information. For first time attendees, the app can be a great pocket guide to browse and search the meeting programme, select presentations to add to your own personal programme and keep up with important events. Another good source of information at the General Assembly is the daily digital newsletter EGU Today, which highlights sessions and events at the meeting each day of the week. Issues are available online on the General Assembly website and through the conference app during the meeting, so keep an eye out and subscribe now to not miss a thing! Check the schedule, but don’t overload yourself Each day of the EGU General Assembly begins at 08:30 and ends at 20:00 and is organised in time blocks (TBs) with a number of breaks. Here’s an overview of what each day will look like: Time block (TB) Time (CEST) TB1 08:30–10:15 AM Coffee break 10:15–10:45 TB2 10:45–12:30 Lunch 12:30–14:00 TB3 14:00–15:45 PM Coffee break 15:45–16:15 TB4 16:15–18:00 Networking 18:00–19:00 Medal & Award lectures, evening events 19:00 & onward Each time block further comprises a number of presentations, which – needless to say – can be quite tiring to sit through an entire day. It would be wise to shortlist sessions of your interest and plan to attend them accordingly through the week. More information about the meeting format is available here.Don’t forget to take regular breaks to keep stress levels at bay – whether attending on-site or virtually. Try a 5 minute coffee meditation or 5 min yoga stretch at your desk, and feel free to recommend to a friend! Explore beautiful Vienna The city’s public transport is exceptionally well planned and connected, so do your best to explore some of Vienna during the conference week. Staying along the U1 underground (U-bahn) line ensures quick and easy access to all the main tourist spots and the conference centre, but don’t fret if your accommodation is already booked elsewhere – you’ll be able to get around the city fairly easily either way. Vienna has plenty to offer, from picturesque parks and gardens, through to impressive architecture and a plethora of museums. A good starting point is Wien Info where you’ll find tips on how to enjoy the city to the full, without breaking the bank. The site has information about arts and culture events, free wifi spots, the best places to go for a bite to eat or a drink, as well as a selection of affordable sport options too. And here you’ll find information on the Vienna City Card to get around during the week. So there you have it! A beginners guide to help you make the most of your first General Assembly experience. Stay tuned for further conference updates which will be shared regularly via the EGU blog and on social media.
Montag und es regnet, da kann man sich die Zeit mit einem #Geoblog-Räzel vertreiben:
" There is no one wrong. There is a world of inconveniences."
“Who are these men?!” he says, seeming genuinely baffled. I feel my shoulders rise towards my ears with tension as I wait for him to continue. The man is summarizing what his group, comprised solely of men, have arrived at during their group-discussion at the gender equality seminar we are taking. We have been presented with, I might say, “the usual” statistics for academic women. A prevalence, certainly, of sexual harassment and hostile working environments, but specifically highlighted also is the excess of small, seemingly innocuous oversights, issues and hurdles, ultimately leading to the ever-present imposter syndrome. I feel seen. And yet, the spokesperson for the group continues his summary: “We think there are some alpha-males.” He goes on at some length about these difficult men, and what solutions there might be to the problems they cause. I wish I could find my voice, but I am so frustrated that I feel there is a high chance my voice will break, and I will become the archetype of women – weak and emotional. I bite my tongue. I want to find my voice. I want to stand up and say: “You! You are these men. Every man in here is “these men.” We will get nowhere if none of you acknowledge your role!” I am not angry with them. I like them, good colleagues, some even good friends. However, none of them is without any role in this. It is not a conscious choice they are making, but at the same time they are highlighting the very essence of the problem. Most men do not think they are a part of the problem. Most probably feel they are a part of the solution. Our workplace is male-dominated, by a landslide, and it is a work environment historically built on a male approach, however stereotypical that might sound. Another voice pipes up to say: “Why don’t these women talk to their superiors? Report these things?” I want to laugh. We have all heard the expression ‘making a mountain of a molehill’. I cannot report a molehill. I cannot go the management and have a meeting because I have, yet again, been left out of an email, forgotten for a meeting, added last to a list, not been invited to a lunch, not asked my opinion, not invited to co-supervise a master or PhD, left behind alone at the office on field-campaigns, not included in a research project in which I clearly have expertise, not cited by my own colleagues on highly relevant publications, not even asked to co-author a paper on a project where I am the lead expert but instead racing to find an equivalent male at a university nearby. Or perhaps the worst, tagged onto something at the last minute as the token woman without having an actual role. Included into meetings or in roles without any actual communication, guidance, input. Perhaps it is almost worse when you are included on paper, reduced to just your female name. No, I cannot report these molehills. And yet the molehills have become a mountain. I would not be sitting there, shoulders creeping up over my ears, if fifteen years of molehills were not weighing on my mind, if every statistic didn’t feel like a punch in the gut, and if this incomprehension of the systemic unintended bias in our workplace, didn’t feel like a cold slap in the face. I have a close friend working in IT, and she says they can recruit women to her company, but not keep them. Her colleagues are concerned over this, and suggest that buying scented candles for the bathroom might make the work-environment more appealing. This more than anything feels endemic of the problem at hand. Men want gender equity, they want a better work-environment. But typically they want an action plan. A solution. Those scented candles are thinking “right”, but oh so wrong. I do not want candles. I want someone to provide an inclination that I have something to contribute. I do not want to force these men to include me, I want them to want to include me. However, I, like them, if I might be so bold, prefer to work with my own gender. If that option were available to me. I communicate better with women, I understand women, I connect with them. If the roles were reversed would I not predominantly build projects with friends? Supervise with friends? Travel to the field with friends? My friends typically being women. Just as I cannot report the molehills I cannot stand up and point a finger. There is no macho chauvinistic male who has made me feel like this. In fact rather there have been kind, cheerful, helpful men around, who have been nothing of the sort. There is no one wrong. There is a world of inconveniences. The statistics show women publishing less than men, getting fewer citations, fewer grants, fewer professorships. The discussions move on to how to change these numbers. Change needs to happen, but it is a catch-22. We want to achieve gender equity and yet for gender equity to be achieved we need to keep women in academia, but women leave academia. To keep women we need to include women, support women, but women do not want to be forced upon anyone, forcibly included in anything for the sake of upping the statistics. For me, more than anything, this is about inclusivity. I want a working environment in which I am included, valued, and trusted. I think it is important to stress that I want this much more than the measurable “success”. Change needs to happen, but more change than just scented candles in the bathroom. I bite my tongue. What a “typically female” thing to do. Sit quietly. I could kick myself.
Drüben im #Geoblog suchen wir heute eine göttliche Felswand!
carlo infante
EGU
IDNU
Ruth Mottram
Matthias Kunz 
