Eleven reasons why you should bring your whole lab to Cell Bio Virtual 2020

Whenever ASCB asks, one of the things members always say they love about membership is the chance to attend the annual meeting. It’s THE place to check in with your colleagues, get feedback on your research, and to build relationships that impact your career. With Cell Bio Virtual 2020 – An ASCB|EMBO Meeting moving online, it might be hard to visualize how regular attendees are going recreate the experience of mingling with their colleagues and friends.

One of the best ways to create a community in a virtual space is to attend the meeting together with your labmates or collaborators. With a virtual meeting, your colleagues anywhere in the world will be able to attend. This year, all ASCB members can attend the meeting for free. And to encourage more new members to attend, ASCB has launched a Member-Get-A-Member campaign, now through August 31, so that current members can bring in new members and both receive thank-you gifts. Find out more about Member-Get-A Member on our membership page.

We asked a couple of stalwart ASCB members to provide us with some reasons they like to gather their group for the meeting. The reasons listed below were contributed by Prachee Avasthi, associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, and Omar Quintero, associate professor of biology at the University of Richmond. Whether in person or online, these benefits still hold true. Some may be even easier to realize in an online setting; others may require a private web conference call or phone video chat.

So collect your colleagues and gather your posse, whether it’s your own lab or just some far-flung like-minded scientists you know, and get ready to attend Cell Bio Virtual 2020.

Reasons to bring your whole lab to a meeting:

1. Facilitates feedback on ongoing projects (even ones in early stages)
2. Helps recruitment to your lab
3. Fosters collaboration on more projects
4. Helps lab members become known in the field and provide them more opportunities to make connections for their future career goals
5. Helps lab members obtain training and inspiration in areas not already provided within the lab
6. Allows attendance at more sessions! Divide and conquer different sessions so that you can stay up to date on more of the meeting when debriefing afterward
7. Increases the number of scientific ideas inspired by meeting attendance
8. Allows debriefs with other group members about the talks, posters, or vendors you saw
9. Enables meetups with former lab members who’ve gone on to other things, which helps the current lab members imagine what might be possible for them

• Provides opportunities for multiple points of view and offers a chance to build a network and community

11. Creates a shared experience!