News & Events

This event is presented as part of the 2023 Canadian Astroparticle Physics Community Meeting.

We usually think of science communication as describing our science to the “general public”, doing outreach in high schools, or trying to explain how our experiments work to grandparents over a holiday dinner. 

In this workshop, we will focus on communication for career advancement and network building: telling the story of your research contributions to a potential employer, supervisor, collaborator, or granting agency. Not everyone wants to know what a neutrino is, but people are always interested in creative solutions to interesting problems, and this is what matters most to the people you work with. 

In this afternoon workshop, we explore how communication plays an integral role in career development and network building, and importantly, network engagement. The workshop is presented in three parts, as presented in the agenda below. The overall goal of the workshop is to equip you with a variety of skill around identifying and communicating about the challenges you face in your work. Why would you want to talk about your challenges when you’re meeting or catching up with someone? Isn’t that scary and unprofessional? Think about one scenario where you meet someone, and you both talk about “what you do”. You walk away trying your best to remember their name and what they do. Now imagine someone says “My name is X. I’m working on Y, and we’re really having trouble with Z”. By sharing their challenge, they are bringing you into their story. You are invited to offer your perspective on Z, or maybe you know someone who might be able to help them. In any case, the interaction is deeper, more productive, and has more potential for a lasting connection to be made.  

Agenda:  

1:30 – 3:00 

• Introduction (10 minutes) 

• Ice breaker (5 minutes) 

• Communicating Challenges for Connection Building (20 minutes) 

• Exercise: (5 minutes) 

• Identifying your challenges with Nanci Corrigan (40 minutes) 

• Exercise: (5 minutes) 

3:00 – 3:30 – Break (with food) 

3:30 – 5:00  

• Panelist presentations: 

• Erica Caden (10 minutes) 
• Edward Thomas (10 minutes) 
• Christine Kraus (10 minutes) 

• Questions for the panelists (30 minutes) 

• Exercise: Speed Networking (15 minutes) 
• Exercise: Open Networking (15 minutes)