Author: Emily Fisk
This time last month, the Florey student cohort were still on a high after organising a second successful symposium; but an event like that doesn’t spontaneously occur and we had been planning for months ahead!
Here is a brief account of the run-up to the day, the skills we required and a reflection of the experience (including photos of the day).
6 months to go…(Apr 2015)
Working in a multidisciplinary team can often throw its challenges in your path and one of the first hurdles we faced was finding a date. This had to suit not only the students, but our supervisors and scientific community we hoped to target. We quickly learnt to appreciate the commitments of everyone involved, from clinicians, to research technicians, to family and friends wanting to see our work. We also found that July-September was peak conference season, so we needed to avoid any major clashes; our original date was the same as the Staph-GBI conference – not ideal! We eventually accepted that it’s often hard to accommodate for everyone, so opted for our most popular date and booked the venue.
4 months to go…(June 2015)
With nine Florey students organising the day, and a multitude of names thrown at us from our supervisors, picking our invited speakers was tough. There were just so many researchers we wanted to invite! It was also important to us that we balanced the day with early career researcher presentations; as a student-led event, we wanted to hear about the work of other students and post-docs, with a view to sharing ideas, techniques and promoting collaborations. We contacted our top four invited speakers, ensuring we had a balance of topics, and got to work with publicity and advertising our event; we branded the symposium, created suitable advertisements and sent out the call for abstracts. At this point, we also created our Twitter account (@floreyinstitute), in order to reach out to audiences not typically associated with our targeted academic institutions. This was a whole new area for many of us, as we had not been involved in UoS publicity or external communications before.
The student cohort also had to form a budget. We were funded £1000 from the University of Sheffield, with any other financial requirements having to be sorted by us. It was at this point that we reached out to scientific companies and representatives for sponsorship of the event. Luckily, a few of us had attend sponsored coffee mornings in our departments in preparation for this, so already had a couple of contacts and networks to hand.
1 month to go…(Aug 2015)
The abstract deadline had now passed and we were collectively faced with another decision: who should we chose to present from the submitted abstracts? We wanted to focus our event on host-pathogen interactions and the techniques used to study them, not just on Streptococcal or Staphylococcal studies. Therefore we looked for a balance of topics, to promote a wider range of research, and contacted everyone who had submitted to allocate either a oral or poster presentation.
This was also the time to sort out all the odds and ends, like name badges, poster boards, food requirements, prizes and so on, which required a lot of team communication, regular meetings and a push from all members to get us through the final stretch.
1 week to go….
This was a time for minor panic and building of nerves: with a week to go, everything had to be finalised and ready for the day. Once more, this required a network of people to help bring everything together: we worked together as a team on our opening presentation, with the caterers to discuss dietary requirements, with sponsors to arrange their input and access to the day (including Sponsor Bingo!) and also with the University porters who were to help us arrange the hall and equipment.
1 day to go….
Nerves had truly set in by this point as all the hard work from the past 6 months were culminating in this day. But with plenty of preparation and hard work, we were ready to take it on!
Here are some photos from during the event:
This time last month, the Florey student cohort were still on a high after organising a second successful symposium; but an event like that doesn’t spontaneously occur and we had been planning for months ahead!
Here is a brief account of the run-up to the day, the skills we required and a reflection of the experience (including photos of the day).
6 months to go…(Apr 2015)
Working in a multidisciplinary team can often throw its challenges in your path and one of the first hurdles we faced was finding a date. This had to suit not only the students, but our supervisors and scientific community we hoped to target. We quickly learnt to appreciate the commitments of everyone involved, from clinicians, to research technicians, to family and friends wanting to see our work. We also found that July-September was peak conference season, so we needed to avoid any major clashes; our original date was the same as the Staph-GBI conference – not ideal! We eventually accepted that it’s often hard to accommodate for everyone, so opted for our most popular date and booked the venue.
4 months to go…(June 2015)
With nine Florey students organising the day, and a multitude of names thrown at us from our supervisors, picking our invited speakers was tough. There were just so many researchers we wanted to invite! It was also important to us that we balanced the day with early career researcher presentations; as a student-led event, we wanted to hear about the work of other students and post-docs, with a view to sharing ideas, techniques and promoting collaborations. We contacted our top four invited speakers, ensuring we had a balance of topics, and got to work with publicity and advertising our event; we branded the symposium, created suitable advertisements and sent out the call for abstracts. At this point, we also created our Twitter account (@floreyinstitute), in order to reach out to audiences not typically associated with our targeted academic institutions. This was a whole new area for many of us, as we had not been involved in UoS publicity or external communications before.
The student cohort also had to form a budget. We were funded £1000 from the University of Sheffield, with any other financial requirements having to be sorted by us. It was at this point that we reached out to scientific companies and representatives for sponsorship of the event. Luckily, a few of us had attend sponsored coffee mornings in our departments in preparation for this, so already had a couple of contacts and networks to hand.
1 month to go…(Aug 2015)
The abstract deadline had now passed and we were collectively faced with another decision: who should we chose to present from the submitted abstracts? We wanted to focus our event on host-pathogen interactions and the techniques used to study them, not just on Streptococcal or Staphylococcal studies. Therefore we looked for a balance of topics, to promote a wider range of research, and contacted everyone who had submitted to allocate either a oral or poster presentation.
This was also the time to sort out all the odds and ends, like name badges, poster boards, food requirements, prizes and so on, which required a lot of team communication, regular meetings and a push from all members to get us through the final stretch.
1 week to go….
This was a time for minor panic and building of nerves: with a week to go, everything had to be finalised and ready for the day. Once more, this required a network of people to help bring everything together: we worked together as a team on our opening presentation, with the caterers to discuss dietary requirements, with sponsors to arrange their input and access to the day (including Sponsor Bingo!) and also with the University porters who were to help us arrange the hall and equipment.
1 day to go….
Nerves had truly set in by this point as all the hard work from the past 6 months were culminating in this day. But with plenty of preparation and hard work, we were ready to take it on!
Here are some photos from during the event:
 Clockwise from top left: Our venue Firth Hall, the sponsors setting up before registration begins, Chloe sitting ready at the registration desk, a final run-through of the Florey student welcome presentation.  Our invited speakers (clockwise from top left): Dr. Joan Geoghegan, Prof. Stephen Curry, Prof. Tim Mitchell and Dr. András Spaan. |  Clockwise from top: Attendees enjoying coffee and posters during our morning break, attendees chatting to our sponsors and playing Sponsor Bingo during lunch, our sponsors grabbing an early lunch before the break!  Our sponsors (clockwise from top left): Paul from Promega, Chris from New England Biolabs, Mark from Stratech and Steve from Sarstedt. |
The Florey student cohort with our invited speakers. Left to right: Kyle, Furaha, Roxanne, Chloe, Prof Stephen Curry, Emily, April, Prof Tim Mitchell, Ben, Dr Joan Geoghegan, Dr András Spaan.
Clockwise from top left: Apoorva and Magdalena with their 1st Prize vouchers, Florey student Emily handing Ewan his Prize for Sponsor Bingo, Florey student Chloe awarding Claudia 2nd Prize for Oral presentation, Florey student Emily handing Khondoker 2nd Prize for Poster Competition.
We all thoroughly enjoyed the day, and would also like to say a massive well done to all our prize winners.
People's Choice Poster Prize:
1st Place - Magdalena Widziolek (Jagiellonian University)
2nd Place - Dr. Khondoker Akram (University of Sheffield)
Oral Presentation Prize:
1st Place - Apoorva Mulay (University of Sheffield)
2nd Place - Claudia Lindemann (University of Sheffield)
Sponsor Bingo:
Dr Ewan Murray (University of Nottingham)
People's Choice Poster Prize:
1st Place - Magdalena Widziolek (Jagiellonian University)
2nd Place - Dr. Khondoker Akram (University of Sheffield)
Oral Presentation Prize:
1st Place - Apoorva Mulay (University of Sheffield)
2nd Place - Claudia Lindemann (University of Sheffield)
Sponsor Bingo:
Dr Ewan Murray (University of Nottingham)
Reflection and Thank You!
Organising this symposium was often very challenging, as it required us all to put aside time between our lab work and other commitments, to bring together different aspects of the event, from contacting speakers and sponsors, to designing publicity materials, to sending out calls for abstracts and registration forms. Communication was fundamental. However, with any struggles and problems we faced now far in the back of mind, it all felt totally worth it and I will look forward to hosting another event next year!
One of my personal highlights actually came the week after our symposium, when I attended the M4 Midlands Microbiology conference; a couple of conference attendees recognised me as one of the Florey symposium organisers, so came to discuss the work we carry out in the Institute and congratulated us on a successful day - they emphasised how much they wanted to return next year which felt great! It was definitely a worthwhile experience and hopefully it will open doors for future collaborations too!
Finally, we couldn't have pulled off this event on our own or without the help of our networks. We would like to say a massive THANK YOU to Chrissy, our Florey administrator, who was our organisational core - we couldn't have done it without you! The porters and administrative staff in the Florey Institute and UoS also do a huge amount of work behind the scenes, so another big thank you goes to all those members of staff who helped throughout. Lastly, we would like to thank all who attended our event and made it possible - we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
We look forward to seeing you all the same time next year!
Organising this symposium was often very challenging, as it required us all to put aside time between our lab work and other commitments, to bring together different aspects of the event, from contacting speakers and sponsors, to designing publicity materials, to sending out calls for abstracts and registration forms. Communication was fundamental. However, with any struggles and problems we faced now far in the back of mind, it all felt totally worth it and I will look forward to hosting another event next year!
One of my personal highlights actually came the week after our symposium, when I attended the M4 Midlands Microbiology conference; a couple of conference attendees recognised me as one of the Florey symposium organisers, so came to discuss the work we carry out in the Institute and congratulated us on a successful day - they emphasised how much they wanted to return next year which felt great! It was definitely a worthwhile experience and hopefully it will open doors for future collaborations too!
Finally, we couldn't have pulled off this event on our own or without the help of our networks. We would like to say a massive THANK YOU to Chrissy, our Florey administrator, who was our organisational core - we couldn't have done it without you! The porters and administrative staff in the Florey Institute and UoS also do a huge amount of work behind the scenes, so another big thank you goes to all those members of staff who helped throughout. Lastly, we would like to thank all who attended our event and made it possible - we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
We look forward to seeing you all the same time next year!
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