Today we discussed general tips about how to organise one-self for a conference.

Getting through a conference:

Before the conference

As for most things, getting ready before the thing is a really good way to have a smooth time during the thing. Here are a couple of things we discussed that could be helpful.

• If you’re giving a talk: practice your talk! We’ve all seen great talks before but remember that they come from the presenters putting a lot preparation work into their talk, not from some kind of innate talent: a good talk = a lot of preparation.
• Get an elevator pitch ready. Get a 1 minute pitch of your work that you write down or learn by heart to share with people. You will be using it a lot to introduce yourself to new people. We discussed that in most cases it really helps to introduce yourself (i.e. people can have a clear memory of what you work on) and can help you with dealing stress when meeting people: it’s much easier to know by heart your first couple of sentences than improvise all the way.
• Have a look at who is attending the conference before and and think of which people you would like to chat to. If they are senior, don’t hesitate to drop them an email saying you’re gonna go to the conference and would like to have a quick chat with them!
• Similarly, have a look at the talk titles and topics. This will help you get excited and/or focused for specific talks. Also, if it’s a big conference with multiple sessions, it can help you decide an program of which talks to choose from.

  Note that some conferences have their own apps that help you to plan the talks and meetings, make use of it!

During the conference

• Save your energy! Conferences are long days of intense work: paying attention, meeting new people, standing up a lot of time, etc… Don’t feel like you need to go to all the talks and all the events. Choose the ones you want to really attend and plan around. E.g. if you really want to attend a session in the morning, it’s OK to not stay very late in the pub networking the night before. Or the other way around!

  Pro tip for not running everywhere: plan per session rather than per talk (i.e. attend a whole session containing a talk of interest rather than running around between sessions - sessions are usually thematic so the chances are you’ll learn something new and useful from the non-targeted talks). Key note talks can be really good (they often are!) but it’s also OK to miss them and watch them online from your hotel bed if they’re in the morning!

• If you’re more junior: don’t feel embarrassed/shy to introduce yourself to more senior people, that’s what conferences are for! Most people are very happy to meet new colleagues, and if they’re not, you don’t have to feel bad, a very small minority of people attending conferences are not nice, once you figure that out, you can ignore them forever!
• If you’re more senior: always introduce yourself and make space for meeting new people (don’t assume everyone knows you; and make space for more junior people). Basically don’t only hangout with old friends, make some new ones!
• Take home the unused tea bags from the hotel room and the conference center!

After the conference

• Email people you’ve enjoyed talks/meetings, it’s always nice to receive the message and can keep things going. If you had discussions about future projects with people (grants, jobs, collaborations), email them really soon after the conference. That way the memory of the discussion is still fresh and you can always go back to at email in the future.
• Take notes of the cool new things you’ve learnt, planned or thought: you’ll forget them very soon otherwise. Conferences are moments when you intake a lot of information and I can guarantee that you won’t remember 10% of it after a while if you just keep it in your head!
• Have a break, take a long weekend or some holidays! Conferences are tiring: you’ll be effectively working very long days for a long period of time (often 12-14h per day for a whole week): it’s totally fine to cash back that over time with a more relaxed week after the conference!

We already had some nice discussions about what things could be improved for conferences (carbon foot prints, visa requirements, poster sessions) but that’s a topic for another day.