7 tips to get the most out of a conference

"I am afraid venue alone is not enough to make a conference a success."

Today is the last day at the conference. Having experienced some "food fest" shocks yesterday didn't stop me to take a step back and think, the following are few tips I think will help you get the most out of any academic conference you are attending.


1) Attend the presentations selectively - One is motivated more by the popularity of the speaker than the relevance of the topics before deciding which parallel session to attend. Experienced researchers tend to be better speaker. They are clearer and can communicate better, but it also benefits attending talks of topics relevant to you, this helps either enhancing your knowledge or allow you to contribute productively to the speaker

2) Listen attentively - I am normally too lazy or busy to go through the papers in advance and therefore not able to get an idea of the papers. Therefore the more I need to listen attentively. The presentations and the slides may not be the best or well organised, but there are always the main points, so pick that up and see what the presenter got to say and if you can beneift or able to contribute constructively.

3) Think about the speaker sympathetically - Sometimes the speaker may not be as experienced, like e.g., a PhD student presenting for the first time, and they may be nervous. We need to be able to bear some imperfections.

4) Ask questions appropriately - Following from 3) if later we have questions to ask the speaker, we ought to be as appropriate as possible. In any case, ask appropriately is quite important because it shows whether you are asking to show you are an expert or asking to show that you are giving good inputs to the speakers to help him/her improve on his/her paper.

5) Speak slowly and clearly - Apart from 4) it is very important to ask the question to the speaker clearly and slowly so that not only the speaker but others attending the talk know you are asking. this will benefit most of the people. It goes to apply if you are the one presenting the paper that you must be clear and speak slowly too, though other factors like good presentation slides are also important if you are presenting, but these are not covered on this blog post.

6) Share your opinions honestly - Normally one gains from the experience of other people and a conference is a channel to allow one to learn that from other people. It does requires one to be honest about one's experience in order to help others see the insights. I had a couple of chats with early stage PhD student and PhD student completed their viva and ready to write their chapters into Journal articles. Both stages are different and I had been through them and I am just happy to talk about to some who like to hear and who will find it helpful.

7) Eat lightly - It is important to eat lightly though one may not be strong enough to resist the temptation of the richness of choices and varieties of food available during the conference. But remember if you are too full you only end up having lower concentration than normal and especially if you are giving talks or attending talks sessions immediately or shortly after the meal. It is likely to affect you badly