 and maximize your free food opportunities. Good morning. Welcome to 2019, AstroVlog fans. Next week is the 233rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society, commonly known as WAS. Currently, there are about 3,200 people registered for this meeting. That's a lot of astronomers descending here in Seattle. I think this is actually my 12th winter meeting or something like that, maybe 13th. And it is an overwhelming marathon of a meeting, but I love it. Since I am apparently a WAS veteran now, I thought I'd kick 2019 off and take a moment and give you a few tips. Okay, number one, do a little prep. You can do it each night. You can do it each morning on the bus ride into the meeting, but either get the program book or the block schedule, PDF, or the app. Yes, WAS has an app for the meeting and it's actually not bad. Find stuff that looks interesting, highlight things that just sound cool and go check them out. Number two, when in doubt, go to the plenary talks. These are generally the best talks in the meeting. They're usually 45 minutes to an hour at a pretty approachable level for everybody. The very first one in the morning, on the first day, on Monday, is gonna be a great talk about omuomua. So there'll definitely be a couple thousand people at that talk. But number three, don't go to everything. A, there's no way to do everything. And B, you're just gonna burn out. The meeting is exhausting. It's a marathon, not a sprint. The goal is to make it to the other side and maybe learn something. So don't go to everything. If you need to step out, step out. Clap politely at the end of a talk and then just go get a cup of coffee. And it's totally fine if nothing interests you during one block of talks, to just go get a snack or hang out. Number four, take notes. This is my suggestion. Bring a notepad, bring a laptop, bring an iPad. Take some notes, be an active listener. I think you're gonna learn a lot more if you're actively listening. But by the same token, it's okay to not understand everything. I take lots of notes and I'm constantly googling what is going on in the meeting because I don't know everything. Besides talks, number five, go walk the poster hall each day. There's a few hundred posters up every single day and they're only up for a day. So go show a little love that people who are presenting posters, maybe you're presenting a poster, you're gonna want people to come by your poster as well. Talk to people. The lowest barrier to entry for talking and meeting new people and learning new things is just walking up and reading a poster. I try to walk through every poster, even stuff that I'm not interested because sometimes just the design, just the aesthetic of the poster is cool. And I wanna get ideas about what maybe I will put on my next poster. Plus the poster hall is key if you want awesome swag. Okay, number six, this comes from many years of experience as a poor student. Maximize your free food opportunities. So the opening reception and the closing reception, they're gonna have prime snack opportunities. But if you're a student, make sure you check out the undergrad reception. There's usually some snacks there. Anything that's labeled town hall or open house usually has at least a little bit of catering going on. Sometimes even free beer. Some years I've been ambitious enough that I've been able to get basically a free dinner and often a free beer just by hanging out and going to town halls or open houses that I didn't know anything about. And as a young student, I would go to the NSF or the NASA town halls again because there would often be snacks. But I would learn what's going on with big missions. A great way to just be exposed to these things is while eating free chips and salsa. Okay, number seven, where are your name tag? It has useful information like your name, your institution. You can also customize it with ribbons, pins, cool swag that you get. People will get an idea of what you're interested in. New in the last couple of years is also the AAAS has been putting pronouns, preferred gender pronouns on your name tag. And this is a great way to both respect other people's pronouns and also make sure that yours are being respected and seen. Yes, the name tags are large. They made them bigger in the last few years because some people have a hard time seeing. You don't want to have to get really close just to read somebody's name. So make sure you're wearing your name tag. Plus you have to have it on to get into the sessions or the security will stop you. Number eight, a few thoughts about a tire. I would say AAAS is business casual. Don't have to feel like you need to wear anything special even when you're presenting. Business casual is fine. That being said, if you've got a power suit jacket or amazing skirt or an awesome hat that gives you energy and makes you feel confident, then by all means, wear whatever makes you feel confident and comfortable in a professional setting. Okay, number nine, kind of a grab bag here of like what to bring. I'm usually walking out of the backpack, probably not this backpack. I have a shoulder bag that like a messenger bag which I think is a little better. I bring a laptop. I make sure it brings in business cards. I bring a phone charger because I spend most of the meeting also on Twitter. Of course, I carry around this giant vlogging camera rig. You don't have to bring one of those if you don't want. I try to bring a water bottle, but there is almost always stations of cups of water and stuff in these convention centers. So make sure you're drinking water. Bring a light coat or a sweater because you can guarantee the AC is gonna be on full blast in some of the rooms. And bring shoes that you can walk in and stand in all day because you're gonna be going up and down escalators between rooms, around the poster hall, out to lunch and back. You're gonna be putting in a lot of steps. And I mean, it's Seattle, so prepare for a little bit of rain, like a coat or an umbrella or something. But keep in mind, there's usually not a good place to stash things at the conference itself. I don't think we'll have a coat check at the convention center this year. Things are generally very safe, but don't leave your laptop lying around. Okay, and number 10, which is really my most important tip. Have fun, learn something new, relax, take it in, it's overwhelming, take in what you can. Most importantly, be a professional. This is a professional event. This is not a party. This is a meeting. I expect you all to behave professionally with yourselves and with each other. There are parties that happen. People go out and get drinks, but you don't have to. There's no expectation to go out and get drunk or party or go anywhere you don't want to be. It's perfectly fine to say, I'm gonna go back to my room and see you guys. Watch out for each other, watch out for yourself. If you see anything that seems untoward or not cool, then tell somebody. They've been taking this more seriously in recent years and I'm really proud of them for doing it. So if you see something that doesn't seem cool, let somebody know. Okay, that's it. I have to write two more talks and help some students get posters ready. AA starts in a couple of days. I'll see you all there.