Date: 19/07/2021

Speakers: Euan Lindsay and Scott Smith

Why

• What are your priorities for the conference? That will help you figure out what to do while you’re there
• Technical scholarship, opportunity to publish, maintaining networks (seeing the same people over and over at annual conferences)

When

• Stick around afterwards, find out what else happens around (before/after) the conference
• Be aware of when sessions run, find sessions you need to attend
• Deliberately schedule things around why you are there
• It’s okay to skip sessions to have a detailed discussion with someone else
• Use the breaks between sessions to have conversations
• knowing your flexibility will help you decide whether to continue a conversation now or later

Where

• Where are you staying in relation to the location of the conference?
• Know where to find pharmacies, food, etc.
• Feel free to be a tourist before or after

What

• Am I here for the posters, presentations, workshops?
• Attend a session you know nothing about
• push yourself out of your comfort zone
• Review papers for the conference
• be paper neutral – every paper generates 2-3 reviews, so review 3 papers
• you might feel freedom to not attend sessions if you’ve already reviewed papers from that session
• Presenting
• be proactive about when you want your warnings (can ask for longer warnings if needed)
• go in and test the slides before the session in the actual room
• know what you’ll do when the AV breaks at the conference
• get a friend to ask you a Dorothy Dixer, have a slide after your presentation
• don’t let your PhD student out unless they’re ready – let them answer questions themselves
• Chair a session
• make it enjoyable and easy, give an overview at the end and people will leave the session feeling they’ve learnt something useful
• keep to time, cut people off
• facilitate discussions and have a question for each presenter (hopefully don’t have to because there are enough questions in the room)
• ask to be a co-chair to learn from chair if you are less experienced
• Join in the social activities
• Attend the conference dinner and know the dress code
• If you are invited to dinner, say yes
• Give yourself permission to not work and recharge batteries
• put an away message in email and be disciplined, don’t check emails
• put a longer period in your out-of-office (manage expectations of those who are emailing you)
• Think about things you can talk about next year and think about what one of your colleagues would be interested in – send papers around to your colleagues after the conference
• a good way to maintain existing relationships – and inviting them to pay it back
• doing it within your school/faculty positions you as the school/faculty expert

Who

• Who do I want to see?
• Meet with both existing networks and new people 
• How will new connections know who you are?
• Follow up with an email and some sort of identifier (“we spoke about x” or “I was the one with the purple ponytail”)
• Don’t travel as a pack with people you already know
• Figure out who is the most important person in the room (nodes amongst the community)
• look for someone who has co-authored with lots of people, well-regarded, friendly
• Talk with senior colleagues to get a list of key people to approach
• this “gives you permission” to go up to someone and talk to them
• Collect business cards from 10 people + email them a thank you (+ say hello/give a seminar the next time you’re in their part of the world or see them at the next conference)
• don’t be discouraged if people don’t follow up or if they don’t respond to your follow-up
• Everyone has something interesting to say
• remember that who you approach is an expert in their field, not everything

Running a conference of your own

• Support network for younger colleagues
• Entertaining conference for old colleagues
• Blend of technical and social side
• Create long breaks to have good conversations
• Choose correct food for chatting on the side
• Make activities for people to talk

Online

• Connections made via the chat/back channels during sessions
• Breakout rooms before/after the dinner/awards ceremony around shared interests
• Keep in mind travelling to a conference means leaving things behind while online conferences compete with everyday life