I suppose it really hit me when the Viennese border control officer asked, “Ah, you must be here for the conference?” That’s when I realised: this wasn’t just any event. ESCMID Global isn’t your average gathering of lab coat enthusiasts, but rather one of the largest clinical infectious disease conferences in the world. Over 16,000 attendees packed into Vienna for their 35th annual congress.

So, was flying across Europe to attend the Glastonbury of conferences, minus the mud, plus the microbes, worth it?

Well… it depends on what you’re hoping to get out of it. If you’re an academic, you might find that a lot of the sessions lean heavily towards the clinical side of things. On the plus side, it made it easier to narrow down my schedule – with over a dozen sessions happening at any one time, a bit of decisiveness goes a long way. Personally, I found the big-name, high-level keynotes and annual updates from organisations like EUCAST the most accessible and informative.

There were some fantastic shorter, project-focussed talks from PhD students through to big-name PIs, but with so many running in parallel, I often found myself sneaking out mid-session to dash across the venue for the next one on my list (10-minute power walk included). That’s why my favourite spot quickly became the poster hall. With several thousand abstracts on display over the week, it was a dense, buzzing hub of science, perfect for generating ideas and actually having proper conversations. At a conference this large, efficiency is everything.

At the heart of the venue were the industry halls, a labyrinth of booths from hundreds of companies, ranging from the household names to the hopeful newcomers. Some clearly dropped six figures just on their stand. Chatting with the reps was… an experience. Many delivered polished product spiels while subtly squinting at my badge to figure out if I was a clinical prescriber, and when they clocked I was just a humble PhD student, their enthusiasm nosedived. It was also telling how many of them had to flip through the product leaflet to answer even basic questions. That said, there were exceptions: Nanopore stood out for actively wanting to educate, and MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières) brought a mission-driven research agenda that’s too often sidelined.

One of the greatest strengths of ESCMID is how it brings together researchers and clinicians from all over the world. It’s great for catching up with far-flung collaborators and colleagues, but also for sticking with your home team. There’s an odd sense of comradery when trying to navigate and survive the sea of name badges together.

All in all, even though my comfort zone was nowhere in sight, I’m really glad I went. I had some valuable conversations, came away with a clearer sense of direction, and got a solid overview of where the field is heading, along with the big challenges ahead for infectious disease research and funding.