So, the conference

So, how did it go in the end?

I met lots of people! I got the impression that getting to know a few well connected people and getting into a group, such as that journal, can help start a snowball effect. It was quite nice. I started feeling more confident in talking to people.

My colleague and myself possibly could have spent less time together, but I think my (younger) colleague didn't do bad at all at working on her own network.

So to some extent I stick to what I said, that if you don't know anyone, going on your own is probably not bad at all, if you know a few, try to work from there. And useful to remember: some people seem to be NOT interested in talking to ANYONE (so it's not you who is necessarily bad at it!); and some OTHER people might be lonely and happy to talk and get to know you. (so go talk to them!)

Other impressions on the conference:
-talks seem to have been spread in sessions at random. In my case it meant I was not in the session I would have picked - and considering some talks in that one seemed totally out of place, I don't think that space was the issue. I guess it wasn't too bad, but far from ideal.
-I really, really don't think that giving free tequila at the dinner was a good idea. Call me a party pooper, but as much as I enjoy casual interaction with colleagues and social activities, I would rather it did not include tequila shots and caterpillar dance at a large scale. There. Now you know.
-There were some interesting session formats. One I saw that I found worked quite well was a poster/talk session. About 5-7 presenters have a poster in the room. People wander around and read the posters for about 15 mins. Then each presenter comments on their posters for about 5 mins each for everyone, and then there is discussion. This of course serves a different purpose than the classical talk format, but the things it offered I thought were interesting. Some information is provided, but a large space is left for discussion. There were I guess 20-30 people attending that session.
-This conference was attended by a majority of non-English speakers. And a lot actually did not speak english or very little. Simultaneous translations were provided for the plenaries... but... I cannot help to wonder if this is good. We might not like it, but english currently is the international and scientific language. And it's all fine to question that, but in the meantime, refusing to use it means you exclude the people who don't speak your language.... Mhhi don't know.