MCMSki 4, 5… [rejuvenating suggestion]
Another thing I should have included in the program. Or in the organising committee: a link with the Young Bayesians (j-ISBA) section… As pointed out to me by Kerrie Mengersen, ISBA meetings are obvious opportunities for young researchers to interact and network, as well as for seeking a job. Thus, there should be time slots dedicated to them in every ISBA sponsored meeting, from a mixer on the very first day to a job market coffee break the next day (and to any other social activity bound to increase the interactivity. Like a ski race.). So I would suggest every ISBA sponsored event (and no only the Bayesian Young Statistician Meetings!) should include a j-ISBA representative in its committee(s) to enforce this policy… (Kerrie also suggested random permutations during the banquet which is a neat idea provided the restaurant structure allows for this. It would have been total chaos in La Calèche last week!)
Xi'an's Og 
January 16, 2014 at 10:24 am
Incidentally, the best conference I ever went to as a (very) young PhD student was a numerics one in Australia at which there was an event to which all of the plenary speakers, all of the young researchers and no one else were invited. The plenaries were placed one per table, and everyone else was seated randomly. It was a fantastic non-threatening environment to meet people I would’ve been too scared to go up and talk to under other circumstances.
To an extent, this type of interaction also happens at poster sessions (this was not a conference that had a poster session), but it’s much less relaxing!
January 16, 2014 at 9:37 am
Love the banquet permutation idea
January 16, 2014 at 2:37 am
The thing that I was least fond of at this meeting (and, to be fair, I absolutely loved it!) is that there was absolutely no room in the programme for young speakers. I do like a good poster session (and, leaving aside the challenges with getting around the posters, the poster sessions were fantastic) , but a blindly selected junior invited session would’ve been great because, when it comes down to it, to speak at MCMSki you needed to know somebody who knew enough people to organise a session (which precludes most young researchers).
January 16, 2014 at 2:38 am
The only reason that this was a noticeable problem at MCMSki was that the programme was so small, there was no room for contributed talks.
January 16, 2014 at 10:06 pm
yes indeed, and hence this contrite post… even though there was one session of young researchers’ talks, organised by Robin Ryder. And several other sessions involved researchers at the PhD level or just out of it. Still, I agree with the theme of a blindly selected group of young researchers’ talks. Possibly as the first plenary.