Lessons from EGU 2026 General Assembly

I was fortunate to be able to attend EGU26 in Vienna.

This conference is huge!

There were about 20,000 attendees for the in-person event. That is a big number. It is hard to comprehend how many people it is. It’s a lot. Don’t try to memorise faces, names. Treat everyone as new for the first couple of days, then treat nobody as a new face later.

Make a plan before the start of the day

Read abstracts and not just titles.

You are bound to miss good sessions

Sessions run in parallel. All week. This means there is always going to be something interesting going on somewhere other than where you are right now. Trust your plan.

Carry snacks with you

You can eat during sessions, on the walk between rooms, or just on your break.

Keep eating and hydrating

It’s easy to get distracted and forget. Nobody is going to ask you whether you have had lunch. So ask yourself!

Don’t try to make the full week

It’s intense! There’s travel on both sides of the week, so either you choose when to take a break, or it will.

Stay for whole sessions instead of moving between 10-minute talks

It’s a lot of time spent travelling for a short talk that may or may not be as interesting to you as you expect.

Note down names and contact details of people you find interesting

Even if you don’t have time to interact with someone immediately, you will appreciate having the information later when you have the motivation. This is what the conference is for.

Pay attention to medal lectures and short courses

These are on average better than 10-minute talks, but may not be as relevant to your field or project.

See all poster abstracts before entering the hall

That way you’ll already know which ones you want to go see, and what you want to ask. Posters take a long time to go through, and you might miss the important ones.

Sleep enough

Avoid risking the embarrassment of irresistibly nodding to sleep during a presentation.

Go outside every couple of hours

See the sun, touch grass, get some fresh air, smell the rain, relax eyes. Anything to connect to the outside.

You may feel lonely

Find someone to tag along behind for a while.

When struggling to pay attention, try to find a question to ask

Raise hands and ask questions!

I tend to be able to remember those talks better in which I have asked a question.

Expect tough questions

That means people payed attention and understood.