Last week was a welcome return to the 6th International Seminar on ORC Power Systems (albeit online) which has provided some opportunity for a little reflection – and provided the topic for a long overdue blog post.

I would imagine a lot of people might say they have a ‘favourite’ conference. One where they find the most interesting papers. They know the most people. Perhaps it’s always held in a nice location. Or perhaps, as it is in my case, it was their first ever academic conference.

Back in 2013 I was about a year into my PhD, and I had my first abstract accepted for poster presentation at the conference. So, of I went to the airport, poster under arm, to fly to Rotterdam to attend the conference. At the time, our group was relatively small and none of my colleagues worked in the ORC field, so it felt a big solo step into the unknown and I wasn’t sure what to expect.

So, the ORC2013 conference passed by in a relatively uneventful way. I attended most of the sessions. Learnt a bit more about who was who and what they were doing. And tried to mingle as much as I could despite not (and still not) feeling like a natural networker. And when I look back, I can even see a little naivety in the research that I was presenting. So honestly, looking back on it, whilst it wasn’t a terrible experience, I would not have called it a roaring success. It did, however, give me an idea of what the ORC community outside of my PhD bubble was like and gave me a bit more hunger to be a part of it when I returned to the office.

Fast forward six years to 2019, and a few missed iterations of the conference, and things felt a little different. ORC2019 was held in Athens which was a great conference that provided some welcome material for a blog post. That conference coincided with beginning my fellowship and therefore the two of them will always be connected to each other and cemented in my head as a very exciting time. It was also announced that the next iteration was going to be in Munich which coincided with Oktoberfest. As a (somewhat sporadic) homebrewer, ORC2021 was going to be something to look forward to.

Whilst that might not have entirely panned out, ORC2021 still turned out to be great. This was the first iteration of the conference since the beginning of my RAEng Research Fellowship where I have had the opportunity to present some of my fellowship research to the community. I also know a few more people (hopefully reciprocated) and feel much more a part of the community. I was even invited to join the committee responsible for judging the poster competition (how the tides have turned), which was a great privilege.

I guess the journey from a PhD student to an “academic” is a natural part of the job and to be expected if you stick around long enough. But for me that journey feels somewhat synonymous with the journey that I have been on between ORC2013 to ORC2021. And it has been one of slowly gaining confidence, starting to develop my own independent ideas, and ultimately contributing a little more to the community.

So, if you are still at the beginning of that journey and feel daunted by the prospect of what might be ahead of you, remember that those feelings are quite natural, and it is a journey that most of us go on, and come out the other side all the stronger for it.

Keep an eye out for the next blog where I will aim to upload a little info on the research that was presented this year at ORC2021.

For now, for old time sake, here is the poster that was presented back in 2013!