Highlights of the EMS2025 in Ljubljana

The EMS2025 in Ljubljana was a wonderful event with many opportunities to meet new people, get fresh ideas, discuss, and enjoy the lovely city of Ljubljana. The meeting was attended by more than 700 participants from 49 countries: 90 of these participated online from across the globe. Of these, 300 people attended an EMS Annual Meeting for the first time!

The event set off with the Icebreaker on Sunday afternoon, allowing conference participants a relaxed start, to meet old friends, make new contacts and also pick up their conference badges.

The start of the opening sessions featured a panel discussion moderated by EMS President Liz Bentley; it focused on “Harnessing AI: Transforming Early Warning Systems and Flood Prediction”. The discussion was followed by the handing over of various awards, in particular to early career scientists, and then the Silver Medal Lecture by Florence Rabier. A Strategic Lecture by Matjaz Licer concluded the first day.

During the conference, participants had the opportunity to attend numerous oral presentations and poster sessions in the three main programme streams Engagement with Society (ES), Understanding Weather & Climate Processes (UP) and Operational Systems and Applications (OSA), listen to three inspiring keynote lectures, visit the exhibition, take part in one of four excursions or attend various side events. What all these events showed was that Machine Learning (ML) has become a key tool for the entire weather and climate community, which is used for post-processing, prediction, impact forecasting, …Thus the conference theme Growing use of AI/ML in atmospheric sciences and meteorological applications as suggested by the hosts could not have been more appropriate.

• ES Keynote by Karl Gutbrod: “Weather services in society: an evolution of usage and engagement over the past 50 years”
• OSA Keynote by Mariana Clare: “Data-driven weather models: A new era in meteorology”
• UP Keynote by Frederik Kratzert: “Flood warnings everywhere – data-driven rainfall-runoff modeling at global scale”

Recorded talks

Recording of  more than 300 talks are now accessible: they can be accessed directly from the conference website in the programme next to the respective abstract, or in showcases on the EMS Vimeo account. Included in the library are only those presentations for which the authors and speakers gave the respective permission.

Side events, workshops, and more

The conference provided ample opportunities for people to attend workshops, for example on communication, participate in a large variety of excursions organised by the hosting organisations: Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia (ARSO ), the Slovenian Meteorological Society and the University of Ljubljana. ARSO also delivered well attended weather briefings each day of the conference week.

At the closing of the conference on Friday afternoon, the winner of the Outstanding Poster Award was announced. The selection took into account the views of the conference participants: many more participated in the voting this year than previously. The winner is Csilla Ilyés-Vincze with the poster with the title ‘Hive Weight Time Series Prediction Using Meteorological Factors During R. Pseudoacacia Nectar Flow‘. She will receive a free conference registration to attend next year’s conference in Utrecht.

More impressions of this year’s conference as photos taken during the awards, opening and media session can be found at the photo gallery.

Reception for Early Career Scientists & Conveners

The EMS Reception for Early Career Scientists (ECSs), kindly sponsored by PRIMET, was this year held jointly with the Convenor Reception on the evening of Monday, 8 September, on the rooftop of the Cankarjev Dom congress centre. The event was opened by EMS President Liz Bentley, the PRIMET Chair Dennis Schulze and the EMS ECS representative Alice Portal  and proved to be a good opportunity for peer-to-peer networking. It also offered ECSs the opportunity to connect with PRIMET members and many of the convenors attending this year’s Annual Meeting.

Early Career Scientists (ECSs) Speed  Networking  Event

After a first edition of an ECS Career Event in 2019 (Early Career Scientist Café – the experience of two participants) a Speed  Networking  Event was revived at EMS2025: in an elegant side meeting room, eighteen young scientiests from diverse research fields and career stages were formed six groups, each meeting in turn with one of six experienced mentors representing different sectors and career paths. Discussions between mentors and mentees covered a wide range of topics — from making key career decisions and achieving work–life balance, to exploring job opportunities outside academia, and much more. The event concluded with an apéro, providing an informal setting for participants to continue their conversations with peers and mentors.

Reflection on this year’s Annual Meeting by Dick Blaauboer – Chair of the Programme and Science Committee of the EMS Annual Meetings

A month after the EMS Annual Meeting (AM) in Ljubljana I am reflecting on the impact it had on me.  I have been attending the Annual Meetings for many years (not all but close to it) and during the last years have even been closer related to the overall programme development in my role as Chair of the Programme and Science Committee (PSC), a group of scientists, forecasters, service providers involved in the organisation of the setting of the overall conference programme. This year, I was much impressed by the suitability of the venue: the large central hall of the Cankarjev dom congress center was a perfect environment for coffee breaks, poster viewing but also for small informal meetings, in fact all activities except the lectures.
The Icebreaker on Sunday evening was a perfect opportunity to meet up again with colleagues and friends while enjoying a drink and a variety of vegetarian snacks. The receptions later on during the conference had the same good atmosphere. Like last year the session programme started on Monday morning with most plenary sessions in the (late) afternoon. The opening panel discussion, well led by the EMS President Liz Bentley, provided a good overview of the current state of AI in meteorology, specifically in early warning systems. There was not much room for discussion within the panel or with the public, something to work on in future as this could further improve the impact of such an event. The format of a panel worked well though. I was much impressed also by the Silver Medal lecture on NWP by Florence Rabier. The high-level strategic lecture was also given on Monday afternoon, the keynotes and award related presentations, as in other years, spread over the week, which worked quite well for me.
During the week – in my role of PSC chair – I tried to get a flavour of several sessions without trying to follow one or more sessions specifically. All in all I enjoyed the Annual Meeting very much including the side meetings and the more informal parts. I think the conference as a whole went very well. Looking forward to the next one in Utrecht!