Graduate Women in Science (GWIS) is a smaller professional society of ~800 women in science around the United States. Once a year, they host a conference to bring women from across the STEM disciplines together, learn from and connect with each other!
2022’s GWIS conference was at my Alma Mater, University of Wisconsin-Madison, so of course I had to go! There’s something a little different about going back to a place where you’ve already spent a big part of your life. It makes the experience feel more familiar, but also a bit reflective, like you’re seeing the same place from a different stage of your career.
The conference itself was structured in a way that felt manageable. Day 1 focused on meetings for local and grand chapters, which gave insight into how the organization operates behind the scenes. Day 2 was more centered around networking and socialization, which felt more relaxed and conversational. Then Day 3 was the main day for scientific research, where most of the talks and sessions took place.
Compared to larger conferences, the pace felt more balanced. There wasn’t the same pressure to constantly move from one session to another or worry about missing multiple talks happening at the same time. Instead, it felt more intentional, like you could actually engage with what was happening rather than just trying to keep up.
What I Ate
While I was there, I reminisced in how my undergrad days, stopping at the Memorial Union Terrace for beer, and walking along State Street for dinner or coffee. (What else you can do in Madison, WI.)
Being back in Madison added a different layer to the experience. It wasn’t just about attending the conference, it was also about revisiting places that had been part of my daily routine before. That combination made the trip feel less rushed and more enjoyable overall.
There’s something about conference travel that can sometimes feel very structured, sessions, schedules, and timelines. But having familiar spots to go to in between made it feel more relaxed. It also gave space to actually process what I was learning during the day instead of immediately moving on to the next thing.
What I Wore
For the conference itself, I stayed professional with a dress shirt and pants, but tried to wear more lightweight clothes since it is the middle of summer!
Comfort ended up being just as important as professionalism. Conferences often involve more walking and longer days than expected, so finding something that feels appropriate but still practical makes a difference.
I also packed lightweight summer dresses for the dinners and (of course) my trusty supergas for walking & exploring.
Having options for different parts of the day helped, something more structured for sessions, and something more relaxed for evenings. It’s a small detail, but it makes the overall experience feel easier to manage, especially when you’re balancing both professional and social parts of the conference.
What I Learned: Smaller Conferences vs Bigger Conferences
One of the biggest differences between this GWIS conference and the Exploring Biology Conference I attended earlier in 2022 was how much the size of the conference impacts what you get out of the conference. Now this isn’t to say at larger or smaller conferences you learn more, but there is a difference in what I learned.
Bigger conferences focus on cramming as much science as possible in as short amount of time.
That often means multiple sessions happening at once, packed schedules, and a constant feeling of needing to choose between equally interesting talks. There’s a lot of information, but it can sometimes feel like you’re only getting brief exposure to each topic.
Smaller conferences focus more on the interpersonal connections and career information you gather.
This was probably the biggest difference I noticed. With fewer people, conversations felt more natural and less rushed. You’re more likely to see the same people multiple times, which makes it easier to build connections beyond just a quick introduction.
At this conference, which is much smaller than Exploring Biology (thousands+) at around ~100 people, I got to make much stronger connections with women doing things I really care about. And the sessions were much more interactive.
There was more space to ask questions, participate in discussions, and actually engage with the content. One of my favorite sessions was turning your research into a story, something that felt very different from traditional lecture-style presentations.
Overall, the experience felt less about trying to absorb as much information as possible, and more about understanding, connecting, and reflecting. It highlighted how the size of a conference doesn’t necessarily determine its value, it just changes what you take away from it.