ANAKON 2025 recap

Conferences are something special and much more than just events. They offer a variety of presentations, posters, and exciting discussions with colleagues from around the world, providing a platform for knowledge sharing, networking, and personal growth. The first conference you attend often leaves a lasting impression, and this was certainly the case for me at ANAKON 2025 in Leipzig, which turned out to be an exciting experience. In this blog post, I would like to share my personal highlights from my first conference and share some practical tips about how to get the most out of your conference to create an unforgettable experience full of new ideas and contacts! 

What is the ANAKON?

Analytical chemistry plays a central role in many areas of life, including material science, drug development, diagnostics and medicine, as well as environmental and food monitoring. ANAKON is therefore the most important conference for analytical chemistry in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The conference provides a platform for new scientific content, the presentation of innovative equipment and methods, and above all for direct dialogue among scientists. This year the conference was hosted at the University of Leipzig, one of the oldest German universities with about 30 000 students and 1 850 scientists. 

What are ​my personal highligths?

At my first conference, I experienced a number of personal highlights that further reinforced my passion for science. The opportunity to present my own research topic on “The strength of peak recycling in the sustainable and challenging purification of natural compounds” in the form of a poster was one of my most exciting and proudest moments at the ANAKON. The positive feedback from the participants gave me even more motivation and has really boosted my confidence!

Me in front of my own poster during the poster session. Image by KNAUER

Another highlight was the networking. I had the opportunity to have interesting conversations and make new contacts that could potentially lead to future collaborations. It was also fantastic to meet people for the first time in person, with which I had been in contact by email or in online meetings.

Overall, the variety of topics presented during the conference was stunning. From innovative methods to current hot topics such as microplastics and PFAS - each presentation offered new insights, so that overall, the posters, talks, lunch seminars as well as conversations with the participants expanded my horizon and gave me new perspectives on current challenges in analytical chemistry.

Conferences are not only an opportunity to gain knowledge, but also a space for inspiration, networking and personal growth.

How to make the most of your conference experience

To make the most of your conference experience, I would like to share with you some tips that I collected from the ANAKON:

1. Planning: Take the time before the event to research the programme, speakers and topics, and make a list or schedule of the talks, posters and workshops you really want to attend. This way you won't miss anything and can get the most out of the conference.
2. Networking: Make the most of breaks, poster sessions and lunches to connect with other participants. Just think about a short introduction beforehand to make it easier for you to start conversations. This is a fantastic way to expand your business network and make new contacts. And don't forget your business cards, they will be super useful!
3. Capture information: Download the abstracts of the talks and posters you plan to attend before the conference and use them to take notes during the sessions. This will help you process and apply what you have learned later. And if you want to take pictures, don't forget to ask for permission.
4. Participate actively: Don't be shy about asking questions or starting discussions during the sessions. This will show your interest and help to clear up any confusion, making it easier to understand complex topics.
5. Networking 2.0: Keep in touch with the people you met at the conference, either via LinkedIn or email. This will not only allow you to continue the dialogue and answer any outstanding questions but will also keep you up to date on current trends. In addition, you can create a post sharing your impressions of the conference. This will increase your visibility and allow you to connect with other users. And if you use hashtags and/or link to the organiser, you can increase the visibility of your profile even more!
6. Sharing: Think about what concrete steps you can take to apply your newly gained knowledge. One possibility would be to share your insights with your colleagues in the form of a presentation, in order to inspire them for new projects and keep them up to date.

Insights from the time in Leipzig during the ANAKON 2025. Images by KNAUER

Overall, every conference is a great opportunity to expand your skills and make new contacts. Take advantage of these when you can and put my tips into practice to make the most of your experience!

If you are interested in reading about other conference experiences, check out other blog posts here: KNAUER-Blogs

Otherwise, I look forward to hopefully meeting you at a conference!

For further information on this topic, please contact our author: wesolowski@knauer.net