MRS exhibition: My experience

I attended the MRS Fall 2022 exhibition, where the exhibitors (company professionals) had their booths. This included Publishers (Springer nature, Wiley, Elsevier, Royal Society, ACS, etc.), equipment sellers like 3D printers, nanoindenters (alemins, Bruker, etc.) and diamond tips for it, vacuum pumps and chambers (DigiVac), cryogenic chamber and controllers, spray deposition, rheometer & thermal equipment (Netzch), characterization techniques (Oxford) and some recruitment promoters etc. I even forgot many names. I had interacted with almost everyone about what I and my lab mates were doing, about our journal publication, and the equipment I saw could be useful if not already used.

Through the interaction, I was able to collect many ideas and possibilities and build connections as well. Since my interest is in academics, I was able to see the scope of career growth and expand my knowledge purview. I'm always keen to know the underlying operation mechanism in a piece of equipment, which aids the conversation. They were also quite fine in sharing their company plans, future work and clients associated with them (even the Professors). The Professors who use the equipment also are kind enough to send them a representative picture obtained from the equipment, which helps company professionals promote their work as well. So, they are kind of interdependent on each other. 

To gist my experience; information, possibility, and connections do help broaden the outlook, and such exhibitions play a crucial role. No wonder, in future, you may be one of their clients and help promote them through your work.