As a woman in science, the one question I always have is “what clothes is considered professional enough?” This is especially true for those of us who spend time in a lab or out in the field where the clothes you wear have the potential to get dirty, and may therefore be cheaper or not as “professional” in the traditional context.
The other week, I had the privilege to present my research at the 15th International Coral Reef Symposium in Bremen, Germany for a total of 5 days. This conference was my first in-person conference since 2016, so it has definitely been a while. The last two years I attended virtual conferences, in which I only really needed to worry about having a nice top on since no one would see my bottom half on a screen, and that was only when I presented my posters and had the virtual q&a session. Otherwise, I did not even need my camera on for people to see me. Because of that (and the fact that I hadn’t needed “professional”-like clothing for quite some time), my wardrobe was lacking in clothes for me to wear in Germany. In the days leading up to flying out, I frantically scrambled to multiple stores to get appropriate outfits and rack my brain for what level of dressed-up people would be. This involved calling my sister (who is a lawyer now and always has to get dressed-up for work) and asking her for advice on what to wear that was “business casual but not too business clothes-y”. Honestly, at a marine sciences conference at least, you will have all sorts of people dressed from casual business clothes to street clothes. This could be from dress slacks/pants and a blouse to Hawaiian shirts or sweatpants. Overall, most of the conference goers at my most recent conference fell into the business casual side of the clothing spectrum.
If you are going to your first ever scientific conference, congratulations! A few things to know before getting into the outs I wore is that a week-long conference is a marathon, not a sprint. It is exhausting. You are probably on your feet for way more than you ever anticipated (as shown by my change in shoe choice after day 2), super cold since they blast the air conditioning (bring a cardigan or jacket for sure!), and hopefully networking as much as you can. Remember that it is ok to take breaks, necessary even! Take a walk around the conference hall, explore the city that the conference is in, or try talking to new people outside of the sessions.
With all this in mind, below is a guide for the outfits (with some links when I could find them!) of what I wore for the week-long conference that I had. Note that it is also totally fine to wear nice jeans and a blouse as well!
I hope that this was helpful overall! It’s great when you have a bright colored cardigan since it helps friends find you more easily and it’s always fun to have a pop of color. As a last note, my sister also suggested getting dress pants and blouses from Express if you have one near you. In another blog post, I will go into the details of things to bring with you to a conference as a part 2 to this post!