Cannot believe it! It’s the last day of 2024 BPS annual meeting. I still remember the day when my abstract was accepted to give a platform talk and the day when I was selected to co-chair a platform session in my area. This is my first time to co-chair a scientific session of such a grand meeting to my peers in my field! I was very nervous and worried about making mistakes. I still remember I was hesitating to join the net working dinner since I don’t think I am a great scientist now and I still consider myself as a trainee. What am I going to talk to them? Being quiet is bad idea. However, I still attended and I don’t regret! During the dinner, I had a chance to chat with the great figures in my field and I got introduced to her close science friends. We talked about science and chatted about life. It was really rewarding. It’s more than a dinner. It’s an opportunity to build connection and learn from seniors.

I attended many conferences before, big or small. I love BPS because it embraces diversity and allows juniors to co-chairs meetings, stand up onto the stage to talk to the field about their research projects. The audience size is not overwhelming as Society for Neuroscience. So I can network better. Besides, I used to only hear very senior scientists’ talks and barely hear trainees’ talks. Students and postdoc trainees’ work was mostly in poster sessions in the past. Now growing numbers of trainees’ works are presented in a stage-form. This training is beneficial for our career development and a precious opportunity to train our skills to be a good public speaker. I was very cautious when preparing my talk. I was well aware that my audience would be experts in my field and some of them are my collaborators and my mentor’s close friends who work in similar areas. Scientists have to be professionally accurate and logic. I couldn’t sleep for about two weeks before my talk. I was giving my talk in my dream. I was anxious. My mentor was helping me unremittingly. But after my talk, the moments I got compliments and positive feedback, the effort was paid off. It’s a team work. My smooth performance is to show appreciation for their dedicated contributions and I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful team!

BPS 2024 lets me learn a lot from peers and realize how important my team work is. It encourages me to work harder to become a better scientist I can be!