Attending my first academic conference: Perspectives from an ADR UK Intern

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Festival of Social Science comes to an end this week, wrapping up an exciting UK-wide programme of events that connect social science research to new audiences, including non-academics, teachers and young people. In celebration of the festival, we're sharing some insights from ADR UK Intern Rianna Romeo about her experience of attending an academic conference for the first time.

Rianna joined us for the ADR UK Conference 2025 in Cardiff. As well as presenting a poster, which highlighted her work developing her young person's research summary and guide to data communication, Rianna interviewed attendees about their experiences at the conference.

Below are some reflections from Rianna, along with her video.

How have you found the conference and were there any highlights for you? 

I found the conference amazing. One thing that really stuck out to me is how friendly and approachable the research community is. I was quite nervous because I haven't done that much research-based work. I found I could just go up to people they would be able to tell me about their work. 

Also, I've enjoyed learning about how data can be used in so many ways, and how many organisations come together to collate data, link data and use data; it’s a massive chain of events and I really liked seeing that. 

The keynote speakers were really amazing and informative about their work. Everything was really fun! 

You’ve recorded some videos with people at the conference. What are you hoping to achieve with these? 

It was really nice to hear perspectives from other people about what they do for a living in layman's terms, because sometimes the roles people have are really hard to explain to the public, so I was trying to get them to explain it in accessible terms. And it was great hearing about everyone's favourite highlights of the conference.

 

You’re coming to the end of your ADR UK internship. Do you have any reflections on that, and what's next for you?  

Before I came here, I was dead set on working in a lab and doing research that way. But going to the parallel sessions, I've been informed about a new way to approach research.  

I’m really interested in the use of administrative data in health especially, and I found it really amazing how we can use admin data from public bodies to improve health outcomes for so many. It's given me a refreshed idea on what I want to do in the future.  I'm going back to university next week, but I'll miss this place!