This year it is once again possible to upload your oral presentations and posters from EGU 2013  for online publication alongside your abstract, giving all participants a chance to revisit your contribution – hurrah for open science!

Files can be in either PowerPoint or PDF format. Note that presentations will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence. Uploading your presentation is free of charge and is not followed by a review process. The upload form for your presentation, together with further information on the licence it will be distributed under, is available here. You will need to log in using your Copernicus Office User ID (using the ID of the Corresponding Author) to upload your presentation.

Presentations and posters will be linked to from their corresponding abstracts. If your presentation didn’t have an abstract (this is the case for Short Courses, Educational & Outreach Symposia and others), you can upload your presentation to slideshare or figshare as a PDF to share it with the wider community. Add a link to it in the comments section below and we’ll compile those that aren’t on the EGU 2013 website!

Share your presentation with the world by uploading it to the 2013 General Assembly website.

With the mammoth task of Storifying #EGU2013 this week, I’m wondering just how useful social media, particularly Twitter, has become at conferences.

While having a hashtag for a conference with 4,684 oral, 8,207 poster, and 452 PICO presentations (#EGU2013) won’t give you an insight into what’s going on in all the sessions – there’s simply too much science – it provides a guide to what’s happening next (as speakers share their sessions) and is an indicator of the “hot topics” as multiple media-savvy participants share their experience of particular sessions. More importantly though, it gives people attending the conference an opportunity to interact and extend their discussion online.

When there’s over 3,800 tweets on the #EGU2013 hashtag during the General Assembly, curating a scintillating story that also falls into the category of ‘short and sweet’ no longer seems achievable. But do we need it? Perhaps it’s better to preserve the discussion that surrounds topical sessions such as the Great Debate on fracking and shale gas (Storify to come – watch this space!) and short courses, which can then be used as a resource for hints and tips later.

Just a sample from #EGU2013 (click for larger).

While making something public via Twitter can bring up the subject of potentially being “scooped” on science before it’s published. At a conference you are already communicating your work externally, so this is not an issue. Instead, it presents an opportunity to communicate your research with the wider public and scientific community. Here are some of the benefits:

Enriched discussions

Twitter provides opportunities for a much richer discussion during a conference – not only are you listening to the speaker’s insights on a topic, but you can tune in to the knowledge and experience of others in the audience. The knowledge gathered in a scientific conference is phenomenal and in the case of the EGU General Assembly, having over 11,000 brilliant scientific minds at your fingertips, why wouldn’t you ask a question?! Okay, so they aren’t all on Twitter, but the chance of a well-informed reply is high, so it’s still worth asking!

Remote participation

To add to the already enriched discussion, when something is being broadcast on Twitter, anyone can follow the goings on – be it the colleagues you left back in the lab, the geologist whose fieldwork clashed with the event, or the interested twitterer, who happens upon the hashtag! If a talk is being live tweeted (someone is tweeting updates about the speaker’s presentation) then it’s even easier for others to participate in the conference online and ask their own questions of the audience and the speaker.

Leaving a legacy

So we have a rich discussion, that involves members of the audience and connects with the wider public, potentially sharing the science with individuals across the globe – is there more to gain from a conference Twitter feed? Yes. The online discussion can be condensed and curated using Storify, which leaves a legacy of the discussion that people can return to later. Take the #EGUjobs session for example, Sarah Blackford and Helen Goulding gave an excellent talk on how to apply for jobs both in and out of academia last week and you can return to their recommendations here.

What did you gain from the conference Twitter feed? Fancy more of the same next year? Less? Or an even bigger online presence in 2014? Leave a comment below, or include it in the conference feedback form and we’ll do our best to make it a reality. 

Congratulations to Philipp Stadler, Yiming Wang and Eva van Gorsel, winners of this year’s Imaggeo photo competition!

Winning image: Frost by Philipp Stadler

Second place: Icebear Rising by Yiming Wang

Third place: Regrowth after fires by Eva van Gorsel.

Imageo photos are distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence and are available in Imaggeo, the EGU’s online open access geosciences image repository. All geoscientists (and others) can submit their images to this repository and since it is open access, these photos can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press. 

Welcome to the final day of EGU 2013! As ever, there are many many great sessions on today – here’s our final selection of highlights. Be sure to complement this information with EGU Today, the daily newsletter of the General Assembly, available both in paper and for download here.

After you’ve settled into the day and had your morning coffee, why not pick up some skills to show off your talents to a potential employer, make the most of your CV and beat the competition (in academia and industry) in the “How to apply for a job” Short Course? Join career training experts Helen Goulding and Sarah Blackford in Room G10 at 10:30.

Today’s Medal Lectures:

• Julius Bartels Medal Lecture by Nikolai Tsyganenko (ML29), Room Y1, 08:30–09:30
• Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists Lecture by Simon M. Mudd (ML5), Room B6, 13:30–14:00

…and a taste of the interdisciplinary sessions that are on:

• Crustal structure and geodynamic evolution in the Antarctic and Arctic regions 08:30–12:00,  Room G11
• Nature and physical properties of the plate interface in subduction zones: Cross-disciplinary views from Geodynamics-Geochemistry-Seismology-Modeling 08:30–12:00,  Room B1
• Integrated Research Infrastructures and Services to users: supporting excellence in a science for society 13:30–17:00,  Room B3
• Integrating Multiple Techniques to Determine the Evolution of the Himalayan-Karakorum-Tibetan Orogenic System: Surface, Sub-surface & Deep Earth Processes 13:30–17:00,  Room B1

We hope you’ve had a wonderful week, we certainly have!

Today is the last full day to visit the Exhibition at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2013!

Exhibition booths for companies, publishers, research facilities, scientific societies, among others, are scattered throughout the blue (basement), yellow (ground floor), and green (first floor) levels of the Austria Center Vienna. Make sure you don’t miss the EGU Booth in the Blue Level.

Welcome to the fourth day of General Assembly excitement! Once again the day is packed with great events for you to attend – be sure to complement this information with EGU Today, the daily newsletter of the General Assembly, available both in paper and for download here.

Short courses! Today there’s a whole host of them, including a panel discussion on using blogs and social media in scientific research, while Web 2.0 isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, it can certainly raise your profile! Join in from 15:30 to 17:00 to pick up tips and quiz the panellists (Room G12). Later, we have an informal discussion on open access publishing for early career researchers, where experts in the audience will answer your questions on the topic. Drop in anytime from 17:30-19:00 and discus all things open access (in Room R11).

If you’re a young scientist, you can also join the EGU Young Scientists Forum (12:15–13:15 / Room B1) over lunch – a buffet of sandwiches and soft drinks will be served. If you’re a female geoscientist, head on over to the Women in the Geosciences Townhall Meeting to find out about current EGU initiatives and network.

Today’s interdisciplinary highlights:

• Moho oral sessions (SM6.3/GD2.11/GMPV26/TS11.6), 08:30-12:00 / Room B5 (the posters are on show tomorrow)
• Long-term rheological behaviour of the lithosphere (GD2.5/GMPV10/TS9.8): orals (08:30-12:00 in Room G10), posters (17:30-19:00 on the Blue Level) and poster summaries & discussions (15:30-16:15 in Room R7)
• Biochar and organic waste in soils: global warming mitigation and SOM quality (SSS8.6/CL2.9): orals (13:30-17:15 in Room B9) and posters (17:30-19:00 on the Blue Level).
• Geodiversity and geoheritage in geoscience research (SSS6.3/GM1.5): orals (15:30-17:15 in B6) and posters (17:39-19:00 on the Blue Level)

If you need a change of pace, why not stop by the Imaggeo photo exhibition, next to the EGU Booth on the Blue Level? You can vote for your favourite finalist there. Finally, remember to take the opportunity to meet your Division’s representatives in the day’s Meet EGU sessions.

Have a super day!

We’re halfway through the General Assembly already! Once again there is lots on offer at EGU 2013 and this is just a taster – be sure to complement this information with EGU Today, the daily newsletter of the General Assembly, available both in paper and for download here.

One thing we’ve been looking forward to is this year’s Great Debate on shale gas – “to frack, or not to frack?”, that is indeed the question! The aim of the EGU Great Debates is to tackle contemporary issues in the geosciences and break down the evidence with a panel of science, policy and environment experts – with all the coverage fracking for gas has received, this is sure to be a great debate! The Great Debate will take place in Room Y9 (15:30-17:00).

Another not-to-miss session is the EGU Award Ceremony, where the achievements of many outstanding scientists will be recognised in an excellent evening event from 17:30-20:00 in Room R1. Here are today’s lectures from some of these award-winning scientists:

• Ian McHarg Medal Lecture by Alessandro Annoni (ML13), Room R11, 11:00–12:00
• Stephan Mueller Medal Lecture by Leigh H. Royden (ML30), Room B9, 11:00–12:00
• Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists Lecture by Xavier Fettweis (ML6), Room G11, 12:00–12:30
• Alfred Wegener Medal Lecture by Edouard Bard (ML1), Room R1, 12:15–13:15
• Beno Gutenberg Medal Lecture by Jeroen Tromp (ML25), Room B5, 13:30–14:30
• Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal Lecture by John P. Burrows (ML8), Room B10, 14:00–15:00

Why not expand your knowledge base in an incredibly interdisciplinary session on Anisotropy and small-scale heterogeneity in the Solid Earth, combining Geodynamics, Seismology, Geochemistry, Mineralogy and more?! Orals are in G10 (13:30-17:00), posters are on the Blue Level (17:30-19:00) and poster summaries and discussions are in R12 (10:30-11:15).

Finally, remember to take the opportunity to meet your Division’s representatives in the day’s Meet EGU sessions and, if you’ve had enough of the formalities, head on over to the Andean Geotrail photo exhibition where you take a breather and enjoy the fantastic photos taken on an incredible journey through South America (Exhibition Gallery, 1^st Floor, Green Level).

Have a lovely day!

You can find the EGU Booth in Hall X on the blue level. This is the place to come if you’d like to meet members of EGU boards (Meet EGU) and find out more about EGU outreach activities.

Here you can discover EGU open access journals, including the latest addition to the EGU family, Earth Surface Dynamics, browse the EGU blogs (GeoLog and the EGU Blog Network), learn how to connect with us on social media, and more! We will also be giving away beautiful geosciences postcards, which the EGU will post for you free of charge.

EGU Booth at the 2011 AOGS (Asia Oceania Geosciences Society) meeting.

If you have any questions about the EGU, or want to be more involved in the Union, come and ask us, we’re happy to help!

Welcome back to the second day of the 2013 General Assembly! With so many excellent sessions, it isn’t easy selecting highlights, here’s just some of the great sessions on offer today. Make sure you complement this information with EGU Today, the daily newsletter of the General Assembly, available both in paper and for download here.

Why not venture outside of your comfort zone and investigate some of the interdisciplinary sessions on at the Assembly? From Chernobyl to Fukushima: Development of the Geoscientists’ Knowledgebase (GI1.4/SSS6.11) PICO sessions will be on this morning, followed by oral sessions this afternoon. There’s also a great series of orals and posters on the occurrence of earthquake hazards on today (SM3.3/NH4.4) and for something less close to home, there’s the session on evolution in the Earth and other planetary bodies (GD6.1/GMPV11). Take a look at the oral and PICO sessions for this series here.

Find out more about the role and responsibility of geoscientists in natural hazards in today’s Geoethics and natural hazards series (NH9.8) and how we can better determine earthquake source processes in session SM2.5.

If you’re a young scientist, join the EGU Young Scientists Forum (12:15–13:15 / Room B1) over lunch – a buffet of sandwiches and soft drinks will be served.

A tethered balloon will be measuring the aerosol profile outside the front entrance of the conference centre during the coffee breaks (10:30 and 15:30) – you can watch the launch and check out the results, which will be displayed live on computer screens throughout the building.

Today’s Townhall Meetings, organised by conference participants, include the following:

• Future Earth – research for global sustainability (TM4) 19:00–20:00 / Room B6
• Shaping future climate research in Europe (TM1) 19:00–20:00 / Room B13
• IODP-ICDP Townhall meeting (TM2) 19:00–20:00 / Room B5
• JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) (TM11) 19:00–20:00 / Room B8

Finally, remember to take the opportunity to meet your Division’s representatives at the EGU Booth in today’s Meet EGU sessions and, if you’re in need of a break, head on over to GeoCinema, where you can kick back and relax with a geological film (10:30-19:00 daily in B13).

Have a great day!

The selection committee received close to 200 photos for this year’s EGU Photo Competition, covering fields across the geosciences. The stunning finalist photos are below and they are being exhibited in Hall X (basement, Blue Level) of the Austria Center Vienna, where you will also find voting terminals.

Do you have a favourite? Vote for it! The results will be announced on Friday 12 April during the lunch break.

Gypsum Dunes by Robert Wills

Mendenhall Glacier by Daniele Penna

Mirror, mirror by Anna Nadolna

Greenland Ice Sheet by Andrew Sole

Smooth Ice by Kay Helfricht

Colourful hydrovolcanism by Stephanie Flude

Regrowth after fires by Eva van Gorsel

Icebear Rising by Yiming Wang

Frost by Philipp Stadler

Climate change is in our hands by Stephanie Flude

Black Sand Vortex by Yiming Wang

 These images are distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence and are available in Imaggeo, the EGU’s online open access geosciences image repository. All geoscientists (and others) can submit their images to this repository and since it is open access, these photos can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press.