SIOP Conference

This past week I traveled to Atlanta for the 2010 SIOP conference. I have attended this conference the last two years (once in San Fran and then in New Orleans). Its a great conference and it always leaves me loving I/O more than before. I definitely needed a dose of this medicine at this point in my career... or lack there of.

This year was a bit different than years of the past in that I had two of my research studies accepted to be presented. My Master's thesis was presented as a poster and my Undergraduate thesis was presented as part of a symposium. This is an incredible honor since only about 50% of submissions to this conference are accepted, that and the SIOP conference is the biggest conference of the year in I/O.

My symposium was Saturday morning at 8:30. That was a bit earlier than I would have liked, but it was definitely worth it. More people than I expected showed up and so I presented to probably around 20-30 people. It was a great feeling at the end of the presentation when people came up and told me how well I did and that they were really interested in my study (Trust formation in virtual teams). Later that day I got a phone call from my old professor at MTSU. He told me that he ran into the department head of Houston's I/O Ph.D. program. I guess he was really impressed with how well I did and said I really held my own as a Master in a panel of Ph.D.s and Professors. So that was nice to hear as well. Interestingly, I didn't even do this research at a masters level, I did it as a college senior.

My poster was later that day and I got to meet the lady who essentially made data collection possible. She works for Human Synergistics and she allowed me to tailor the "Desert Survival Situation" to the way I needed it. She even had all the copies printed and sent it all to us free of charge. Without her help there is no way I would have graduated on time, so it was really nice to meet her. Many other interested individuals took a look at our poster and it was fun to talk to all the people about it.

It was great to see everyone that I had met at past SIOP's and I am very glad I went. I may not have a company to pay for these type of experiences for me, but it was definitely worth it. Hopefully from all this something will fall into place and I can actually start using my degree.