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Attending a conference

Posted 6/13/2022, updated 5/30/2024

 

A million people pass through the Moscone Convention Center each year. In the early 2000s, I joined its not-so-elite guest list while attending my first conference. I spent the week overwhelmed, but learned a lot and made many new connections. Not knowing any better, I just showed up to that meeting and took it all in, but if you do some planning you can maximize your time at meetings. 

Before

Pre-event planning will help you get the most out of a conference. Think of questions you want to answer that might point you towards sessions to attend and people to meet (e.g., "what new approaches are people using to study [my problem]?"). If you have questions for a specific person, consider writing them beforehand with a query to follow up on at the meeting. The recipient may ponder your question ahead of time and will have some evidence that you have done your homework when they meet you in person.

Big meetings require you to choose from multiple simultaneous presentation sessions. Browse the program and highlight any must-see presentations and events. The bigger the meeting, the more planning is needed beforehand. But you can defer some final decisions to the last minute once you see what topics draw the most interest from others and the physical distances between the session rooms.

Research the meeting dress code before you pack. My attire ranges from suits [engineering meetings] to polo shirts [some earth sciences meetings], and it's awkward to arrive with an outlier wardrobe. It's safest to stay on the more formal side of the dress code. You are unfortunately at risk of not being taken seriously if underdressed, especially if you are young or from an underrepresented group. Check the conference website or ask your advisor or colleagues for guidance if you are not sure about the dress code for your meeting. Meeting rooms are often frigid, while outside may be hot, so pack layers to stay comfortable as you transition between spaces.

During

You'll experience a marathon of presentations at the meeting, and it can take a lot of work to keep your focus. When listening to presentations, formulate a question for each speaker. Even if you don't ask it, thinking of a question will help you listen actively and scrutinize the technical content. Study presentation styles as well. What made a presentation memorable? Was the speaker energetic? Organized? Did they focus on a few key messages? Conversely, study the ubiquitous bad presentations so you can avoid their mistakes. Take lots of notes to document your observations.

Outside of the technical sessions, meet and talk with people. Poster sessions are perfect because people are standing alone in front of a poster that advertises their research topic, so find a relevant topic and ask the presenter some questions. Interesting discussions also happen at lunches, receptions, and coffee breaks. If you are extroverted and comfortable introducing yourself, go for it! But if (like me) you are more introverted, you can trail an advisor or colleague and let them make introductions.

New acquaintances will almost certainly ask, "what do you work on?" So plan a short (10–20 second) answer, and practice giving it a few times before the meeting. Ask the same of them, and follow up about their research techniques or something more varied such as where they are from or how they got their current job. Most people enjoy talking about their work or themselves, so just ask questions if you feel shy or at a loss for words. Consider bringing and giving out business cards. Most people won't have them, but they are fairly inexpensive and an easy way to help people remember you. How many times have you met someone and then quickly forgotten their name? Wouldn't it have been useful if they had given you a piece of paper listing their name and affiliation, plus a web site where you could learn more about their work?

Be willing to improvise during the meeting. Try to accept if you get asked to join a session you hadn't considered or get invited to an impromptu dinner. Or, if you get tired, take a break for a few minutes and go outside. Your pre-meeting plan is a prioritization tool, not a rigid map to follow at all costs.

After

You'll finish the meeting tired and anxious to catch up on work you missed while at the meeting. It's fine to allow some time to recover. But investing some time shortly after the meeting will help you benefit from your new connections and ideas.

First, send some quick thank-you notes to anyone who provided valuable advice or resources. And if you offered support to anyone, do it soon. Having a reputation for being courteous and reliable is a huge professional asset.

Second, browse your notes. You hopefully generated a long list of new ideas to pursue and papers to read. But your enthusiasm for many of the ideas will likely fade quickly. I try to triage my notes into categories like "great idea that I must try soon," or "keep in mind if I get back to this topic someday," or "interesting thought, but a low priority." I scan my notes and try to peek at them again in a few weeks, in case inspiration strikes. But most ideas are more useful for background knowledge than immediate action, so I don't worry about following up on every thought that seemed exciting during the meeting.

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The next iteration of my original Moscone-Center conference launches this month. Two decades later, I will stroll into a sea of familiar faces, and my preparations will be intuitive. No single event caused a step-change in my experience, but years of steady effort paid big dividends. So whether you are an overwhelmed first-timer or slightly more experienced, just aim to learn a few things and meet a few people each day. And take pride that you didn't wear a t-shirt to a meeting full of suits.