I will be attending the biggest and most important academic conference in my field in a week. It will take place in Salt Lake City, UT, and last for a week. I will need outfits for five conference days, including one for a day on which I will be presenting a poster, and an evening outfit for the welcome reception on the opening evening. The conference is in a mixed field: lots of STEM people but lots of medical professionals as well.
There is no official dress code, but in my experience you can see people in everything from super casual (jeans, tee, sneakers) to suits. Scientists tend to dress down but medical people usually dress nicer. Also, it is international and a lot of people from Europe and other places outside of USA tend to dress more formal . I am trying to achieve the golden middle - I want to look polished and competent. While I am not on the job market yet, in about 1.5 years I will probably be looking and I want to leave good impression on the important people I might meet. So for once I actually do not want to challenge the environmental norm (not that there is one for conferences). I do not want to wear anything too feminine, flashy or unusual (for this crowd). Full suits would be too formal for someone in my position (I am a postdoc) so I am thinking of wearing a blouse/button up shirt, blazer and pants/polished jeans.
I would like to ask for you help in figuring out the following:
A. The most important outfit is the one for the day of my poster presentation and I am hoping to figure it out in this post, as I would like to use the pieces from it to mix and match for other outfits. I have come up with 4 options and I definitely need this to be business casual:
B. For the rest of the conference outfits ( I need four more), would you go for business casual like above or smart casual with same items on the top but with polished jeans such as dark trouser jeans, white jeans etc.?
C. I am completely clueless what would be most appropriate outfit for the welcome reception. What do you think of the classic DVF wrap dress? ( mine is navy with tiny white pattern).
D. Finally, does anyone have good recommendations for places to see/eat in in SLC? I have never been to the city/UT before and would like to make most of it in the rare free periods.
I would like to thank you very much in advance for your hep this. Conference dressing is the most stressful and difficult for me as I am never happy no matter what I choose.
There is no official dress code, but in my experience you can see people in everything from super casual (jeans, tee, sneakers) to suits. Scientists tend to dress down but medical people usually dress nicer. Also, it is international and a lot of people from Europe and other places outside of USA tend to dress more formal . I am trying to achieve the golden middle - I want to look polished and competent. While I am not on the job market yet, in about 1.5 years I will probably be looking and I want to leave good impression on the important people I might meet. So for once I actually do not want to challenge the environmental norm (not that there is one for conferences). I do not want to wear anything too feminine, flashy or unusual (for this crowd). Full suits would be too formal for someone in my position (I am a postdoc) so I am thinking of wearing a blouse/button up shirt, blazer and pants/polished jeans.
I would like to ask for you help in figuring out the following:
A. The most important outfit is the one for the day of my poster presentation and I am hoping to figure it out in this post, as I would like to use the pieces from it to mix and match for other outfits. I have come up with 4 options and I definitely need this to be business casual:
- The most fashion forward, and shameless copy of Angie's recent outfit, with dressier shoes: J Crew tuxedo shirt, charcoal pinstripe blazer, skinny black pants and low pointy wedges
- More casual with same pants and shoes, this one with blue shirt and charcoal ponte blazer
- The most conservative option, basically a mismatched Theory suit (black blazer and grey pants) with white shirt and classic black pumps
- Same outfit made slightly less boring with patterned grey/white shirt. Do you prefer the shirt untucked as in 3 or tucked as here?
B. For the rest of the conference outfits ( I need four more), would you go for business casual like above or smart casual with same items on the top but with polished jeans such as dark trouser jeans, white jeans etc.?
C. I am completely clueless what would be most appropriate outfit for the welcome reception. What do you think of the classic DVF wrap dress? ( mine is navy with tiny white pattern).
D. Finally, does anyone have good recommendations for places to see/eat in in SLC? I have never been to the city/UT before and would like to make most of it in the rare free periods.
I would like to thank you very much in advance for your hep this. Conference dressing is the most stressful and difficult for me as I am never happy no matter what I choose.
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