What to Expect at AGU25

Join us for AGU25, building on last year's success with 5 days of dynamic sessions and presentations, including:

Expanded opportunities for deeper engagement
Hybrid access to recorded content and online presentations
A broad range of session formats like keynotes, workshops, town halls, and eLightning sessions

Submit Your Proposal

Keynotes & Plenaries

These featured sessions cover a diverse range of Earth and space science as well as overarching societal topics. World-renowned scientists and leaders will explore the theme "Where Science Connects Us" highlighting the powerful ways in which The Earth and space science community thrives on connection—a vibrant network of research, discovery, action, and solutions. These connections can challenge us, surprise us, and sometimes delight us. They shape the way we understand our world. From the lab to the field to the ballot box, science is driven by the power of connection.

Keynotes and plenaries will be live streamed and available for on-demand viewing.

Named Lectures

Curated by AGU sections, these lectures honor distinguished scientists for their contributions. They showcase the breadth and depth of discovery and solution science spearheaded by AGU members. 

Named lectures will not be live-streamed in real-time and will be available for on-demand viewing only.

Union Sessions

These 90-minute innovative sessions, reviewed by the program committee, cover interdisciplinary topics of broad interest to the Earth and space science community, and convergent science themes and include:

Invited scientific thought leaders connected to AGU’s mission to expand participation from individuals from across the scientific community.
Creative and dynamic format with attendee engagement.
Moderated discussions designed around a theme.
Short presentations or invited panels, both in-person and online.

Please note, conveners may also opt to accept contributed abstracts and convene a companion poster and/or eLightning session.

Union sessions will not be live streamed and will be available for on-demand viewing only.

Oral Sessions

These 90-minute scientific sessions will be allocated by the program committee after abstract submission. The sessions will encompass in-person and online pre-recorded presentations and moderated Q&A discussions with presenters and the audience.

For AGU25, please note the following virtual participation options:

Conveners determine presentation types; authors and conveners cannot request oral presentations.
Sessions will not be live-streamed; recordings will be available for on-demand viewing.
Online presenting authors will be required to upload a pre-recorded presentation prior to the Annual Meeting.
Online presenters will not have the option to join the session via Zoom to participate in live Q&A but will respond to questions asynchronously through the AGU Events app/online platform.
Online, asynchronous Q&A chat functionality will be available for attendees.

eLightning Sessions

These 90-minute in-person scientific sessions will be allocated by the program committee after abstract submission. These sessions begin with three-minute lightning talks from each presenter with:

An overview of their dynamic, digital, and interactive poster.
Discussion of their digital poster at their assigned touchscreen monitor following the lightning talk.

For AGU25, eLightning presenters will only be scheduled in-person only and must create an interactive poster for display in the online poster gallery.

Poster Sessions

Core to the meeting, poster sessions allow researchers at all career stages to present their work. All accepted proposals will include, at minimum a poster component. Sessions will be allocated by the program committee after abstract submission. The presentations selected for poster sessions are determined by the session conveners.

For AGU25, participation options include:

In-person posters: Authors must print posters and will present their posters onsite in the poster hall and also have the opportunity to create an interactive online poster to be displayed in the iPoster gallery.
Online posters: Authors will set their own schedules and must create an interactive poster to be displayed in the iPoster gallery, with the option to create pre-recorded videos or audio narrations. Authors can also engage in asynchronous discussions via self-scheduled video or chat times.

Town Halls

Proposed by the AGU community (including AGU staff) during the call for sessions and open to all meeting participants, these one-hour sessions, are best for:

Collecting feedback or raising awareness about initiatives, programs or special projects.

Delivering updates and gathering input about government agency initiatives, academic programs, special projects, and other focused interest groups for the broader AGU community.

Approved town halls will be:

Focused on topics that do not compete with, substitute or duplicate scientific sessions or substitute for ancillary event requests.
Scheduled onsite and recorded for on-demand viewing only

Pre-Conference Workshops

Proposed by the AGU community (including AGU staff) during the call for sessions, these workshops are designed to give participants opportunities to develop relevant skills and knowledge and how they can apply those skills and knowledge in their own contexts. 

Approved workshops will:

Be half day or full day in length.
Require a separate registration for all workshop attendees.
Be scheduled onsite only on the Sunday prior to the start of meeting.

AGU Learning Sessions

Developed by AGU staff, AGU learning sessions offer attendees opportunities to advance their scientific practice and careers. Learning sessions will take place during the meeting and are available to in-person attendees only.