The WRN Symposium’s “What If…” session joins forces with the National Weather Association’s RON Meetup at the 2026 AMS Annual Meeting in Houston, Texas, next week.
The 14th Symposium on Building a Weather-Ready Nation: Enhancing Our Nation (14WRN) will be bringing back its popular “reverse panel” session called “WRN Asks: What If…” where moderators query attendees for their take on scenarios in question. And new this year, the program chairs have also teamed up with the National Weather Association’s Research-Operations Nexus (RON) Meetup to bring an interesting new twist to the popular speed networking format.
RON’s goal is simple, according to its Meetup abstract: “Plant and water the seeds of collaboration … [to] germinate during the meeting week and blossom beyond the conference itself.”
Never heard of the “What If…” session? Learn more about how it came to be by reading the Question and Answer post about its initiation at the 104th Annual Meeting.
Also this year, 14WRN is planning not one, but two sessions asking the provocative “What If…” questions to AMS attendees. The traditional “What If…” session takes place first on Monday, January 26, from 1:45 to 3 p.m. in Grand Ballroom C of Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center. But following that session, 14WRN added the RON Meetup to their program to close out their Monday agenda. The RON Meetup takes place from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the Ballroom of the Americas at the Hilton Americas-Houston.
WRN’s “What If…” and the RON Meetup will be joint sessions with the Panel Discussions (I and II) on the Kerr County, Texas, flooding as part of the 22nd Major Weather Impacts of 2025 session.
So what makes “What If…” different this year, and why should AMS attendees circle these sessions on their calendar?
We spoke to Trevor Boucher, 14WRN co-chair, about why they are changing things up this year.
Tell us more about this session and what AMS attendees can expect in Houston?
Boucher: We are really excited to bring the “What If…” session back this year but also to provide a different way to interact and collaborate with each other when we all get in the same room. This year, we dedicated our entire Monday program to this goal with the two sessions we will be hosting. The first session will be the same design as previous years. We have three new discussion leaders asking THE questions that are on everyone’s mind in 2026 and giving the audience an opportunity to discuss them candidly.
The new element this year is the NWA’s Research-Operations Nexus (RON). As an NWA member myself, I have participated in this awesome speed networking session at both NWA and AMS meetings in the past and make a point to go. I have always loved the design. People get to “choose their own discussion adventure” with topics of their choice during 3 discussion rounds. Traditionally, those topics are pretty open-ended, like “Probabilistic Forecasting” or “Risk Communication.” You sit down, introduce yourself and what your background is, and talk about R2O/O2R efforts within that topic category. Usually you get a full table of folks and a really good discussion going. That’s the type of interaction I come to conferences for. So we reached out to their organizing committee and asked them if they’d be open to asking one of our “What If…” questions this year, and we can explore the question at tables with various subcategories…a slight twist to how we do it in the larger plenary session. It should be a really cool way to explore the question!
“What If…” has become known for asking the “elephant in the room” questions. So what are they this year?
Boucher: That’s a great way to put it, and yes, that is precisely the point. Not necessarily to be provocative for the sake of it, but to encourage discussion about the issues facing the entire weather enterprise, even if they are sensitive. What are the right questions to ask that are larger in scale and scope than a single research project or study? More importantly, what are the implications of those questions?
Our program this year features three new presenters from various backgrounds in meteorology asking three questions I think everyone will want to discuss:
- What if college graduates and early-career professionals could not get jobs within the field of meteorology? – Edward Shaw (WSLS-10)
- What if the NWS was privatized? – Jeff Adkins (TBD Economics)
- What if AI takes over our jobs? – Nick Lilja (NickelBlock Forecasting)
And that last AI question will be carried over to the RON later that afternoon. We will get to dissect that question among the various backgrounds in attendance: academia, public/private sector, broadcast, students, etc.
Those are certainly topics that should get discussion going. What are you hoping to get from the discussions?
Boucher: Our goal is the same as it’s been since we started the “What If…” design four years ago: to utilize the time we have together, in-person, to discuss the implications of the hot-button issues facing the field of meteorology. We don’t want people to just be lectured at, but to contribute as colleagues and collectively learn together. So we adopted concepts from Transformative Learning into the session design. To do that, we moderate the discussion around these three crucial governing questions:
Are we doing things right?
Are we doing the right things?
How do we know what is right?
Another primary goal of ours is to inspire future ideas of work, especially for the students in attendance, and keep the “big picture” in view. These are the questions that will be affecting the future of our enterprise, so who better to hear these discussions than the students that will be faced with them?
Anything else for attendees to keep in mind?
Boucher: The main thing is, YOU are the panelist, and YOU have the floor at the “What If…” session. So come ready to speak up, especially if you’re a student.
For RON, come ready to network! Also, while any attendee can participate, space is limited, so it will be first come, first serve. If you want to ensure your spot, please register using this RSVP form.
We look forward to seeing everyone in Houston!
Learn more about the 14th Symposium on Building a Weather-Ready Nation: Enhancing Our Nation, including other sessions taking place during the 2026 AMS Annual Meeting.
About the AMS 106th Annual Meeting
The American Meteorological Society’s Annual Meeting brings together thousands of weather, water, and climate scientists, professionals, and students from across the United States and the world. Taking place January 25-29, 2026, the AMS 106th Annual Meeting will explore the latest scientific and professional advances in areas from numerical and artificial intelligence / machine learning weather prediction to weather and climate extremes to environmental health as well as the mental health of our community, and more. In addition, cross-cutting interdisciplinary sessions will explore the theme of Fast and Slow Thinking: The Human Factor in a Rapidly Changing World, especially the role of the weather, water, and climate enterprise in helping to improve for public safety, economic prosperity, and sustainability “the quality and reliability of our decisions” while minimizing our biases and becoming “a more diverse community of professionals.” The Annual Meeting will be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, with online/hybrid participation options. Learn more at annual.ametsoc.org.
