In the last 40 years, folks have called for greater integration of social science into academic and applied conservation work. Human geographers, political ecologists, critical development scholars, Global Majority scholars and others have long reminded us that inadequate attention to human dimensions of conservation (existing or proposed) brings perilous risks. There are now more conservation social scientists but-- we are often few within our respective departments and organizations, and we struggle to connect and collaborate. As conservation social scientists, we undertook participatory insider research to investigate our research landscape and community (main focus: North America). We attended the North American Congress for Conservation Biology (July 23-28, Vancouver, BC). With conference and Research Ethics Board approval, we ran a session/data collection exercise. We created a space for social scientists and ecological counterparts to express needs, concerns, limitations, and opportunities for improving interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral collaboration. We asked about community, networks, key actors, strengths, and weaknesses. In this paper, we present initial findings and analyses from the session (n=21), including written comments on key questions, ranking exercises, and discussions of both. Here, we offer the sample portrait of conservation social science generated in the room. We contemplate implications of our findings for a longer-term goal: bolstering our community of practice. We aim to connect our work with related community-building efforts by the Society for Conservation Biology's Social Science Working Group, and the Canadian Parks, Protected and Conserved Areas Leadership Council. We share goals to raise the profile of conservation social science for career development and success, for community and belonging, and-- for conservation’s sake.