The Psychonomic Society’s first virtual conference (#psynom20) has come to an end. We go to the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting to collectively forward our understanding of cognition. There are all sorts of other reasons to attend, including:
- to be inspired by the latest research of current and future leaders in our field
- to reaffirm collaborations and friendships and create new ones
This year, we had those experiences; we also had so many new experiences. We pre-recorded our talks, watched posters in advance, we Zoomed, we tweeted, and we chatted. We had record-breaking numbers of registrations, had more symposia than ever before, and considered how diversity and equality fit in our research and field. It was probably the first-time partners, kids, and pets came too.
Our first virtual meeting not only worked, but it was a smash hit in no small part due to the remarkable efforts made by the people working behind the scenes.
Here is a list of the army of people that made it happen:
- Louis Shomette (Executive Director)
- Stephanie Dylkiewicz (Director of Meetings)
- Tiffany Aurora (Director of Membership, Marketing, & Communications)
- A fantastic team at the Association Management Center, including but not limited to Brianna Johnson, Jerrod Liveoak, Julie Rogers, Jeanine Lynch, Timothy Utesch, Laura Harris, Brooke Siegel, Colleen Armstrong, Gretchen Knoelke, Cheriden Sablik
- A fab team of support staff that supported in-session chats, the live customer service chat, and our member services desk
So very much appreciated!
Twitter and the Twitter takeover
Our Twitternomes, pictured below, tweeted until their fingers were numb. Their tweets got us talking, retweeting, liking, and kept us informed about the sessions and events we missed. The Society’s number of tweets increased by 1,000%! Behind the scenes, they organized themselves, worked together, and supported each other. For me, it was a joy to work with them. Contact me if you’re interested in being a Twitternome for the 2021 Annual Meeting.
You can get to know our 2020 Twitternomes by reading their interviews with Digital Associate Editor Kimele Persaud and me.
Many of us were tweeting: 1,037 tweets included #psynom20. If you want to see the stats on our hashtag, here they are.
There were also quite a few tweets that included #psynomnomnom. And the food did look nom nom nom, as you can see in the images below.
Talks
A subset of the Digital Content team, pictured below, wrote summaries of talks. We hope you enjoyed them! Look out for more summaries in your email box coming soon.
If you missed a presentation, don’t fret! You can view them for up to 6 months after the Meeting.
Townhall meeting
On the last day, over 100 Psychonomes attended the Town Hall meeting to discuss how racism influences our research and careers and how to address it.
In my role as the Digital Content Editor, this event inspired me to encourage guest authors to write posts for our Featured Content site. If this sounds intriguing, contact me if 1) you are a member of an underrepresented group, and/or 2) are supervising an outstanding graduate student from an underrepresented group.
Final note
Many of us can’t travel for various reasons, maybe because of health issues, family commitments, ethical reasons, teaching obligations, and/or financial costs. It’s my opinion that we should discuss the possibility of what online features we retain in the future when the Annual Meeting is again face-to-face.
The Annual Meeting never fails to invigorate me. See you all next year!
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Expanding our Digital Content Team
Before I go, we are expanding our Digital Content Team. We need a couple of more Digital Associate Editors. If you like reading about all types of cognitive science research and enjoy writing, then please send your CV and a writing sample to me or ask me questions about the position.
