Society of Vertebrate Paleontology invades Raleigh!

This post was written a while ago, but my blog (for whatever reason) was down. It’s fixed now, so I’m publishing it – after the fact. My musings on the meeting will come later..

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I’m currently in Raleigh, North Carolina, sitting in my hotel room, winding down after a crazy-awesome day-and-a-half. I’m here for the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, which is, hands down, my favorite meeting. Every year I go to this meeting no matter what the cost. (I’ve been going to this meeting since 1994, and only skipped a few when I was a poor, starving graduate student.) The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology is the one professional organization that I likely will never allow myself to not be a member of.

This year, the meeting is proceeding as it always does for me: Interacting with colleagues; learning about new methods; developing collaborations; making new friends. I brought some research (as I always do) and will be presenting it this afternoon in a poster session. Tomorrow will be busy as the Friday of the meeting always is, because of the annual auction and that I’m an auction committee member.

What’s different about this year over the others is that I’ve decided to join the ranks of those who use social media to disperse what is being discussed in sessions to the wide world. I’ve been ‘live-tweeting’ sessions: commenting on speakers using the hash tag #2012SVP so that other interested parties can know what’s happening if they couldn’t come to the meeting or if they’re just in the room next door listening to someone else. I don’t say much, only commenting on things that really grab my attention and I think others out there would be interested to know.

This experience has been great so far. Over the past year I’ve begun to think that social media and science outreach was a better fit for my interests and passions than hard-core research (even though I do plenty of research and have new results to present every year). The interactions (face-to-face and electronic) I’ve had during this meeting have been amazing and now, more than ever, I’m realizing that my suspicions are true. Research is great. Sharing it with others is even better.

There are two and a half more days to the meeting. I expect my feelings will grow stronger as this time goes on. I like where I am right now. I like where things are going. Stay tuned!