Since #SFN2024 is coming up, I thought I would provide my annual suggestion for people who haven't been before.
Personally, #SFN is my favorite meeting. It is the only place where I can have a conversation on prefrontal cortex and psychiatry in the morning, neuroethology over lunch, hippocampal place fields in the afternoon, and a discussion about preprints and peer review in the evening. It's like a dozen conferences all rolled into one.
In my experience, #SFN works better if one thinks of it as a deconstructed conference --- we are each experiencing our own individual path through the conference. Our paths will cross at interesting times.
Many people try to experience SFN as a regular conference - "I need to see this talk now." "I need to see this poster now." I (personally) find it much more useful to think of it as an ocean to swim in or as visiting a city where there are too many interesting sights to see and lots of interesting people to talk to. The itinerary I build from checking out the "meeting planner" is just a guide to get me to the right part of the city at the right time to see interesting things.
PS. If you do find yourself with extra time, I recommend going to a section of the posters about topics very different from what you normally do. Find a poster without a lot of people, go up to the person, tell them "I don't work in this field, but tell me about your poster." Think of it as a way of randomizing your experience.
Just my perspective.
YMMV.
But maybe this is helpful to someone.
