While interesting to go, my first academic conference did not exactly give me high returns on the investment. Did I “do it” in the best way possible? Definitely not. This article gives a quick summary of what I should been doing 🙂 In short:
- Define your goals
- Do your research
- Consider your target groups
- Find common ground
- Prep your pitch
- Make some new friends
- Follow up
Helena Ledmyr also makes the reasons for attending a conference include:
- Learn something
- Teach something
- Find a new collaborator
- Meet with existing collaborator
- Find a new job
- Hire somebody
- Sell something
- Buy something
If doing none of these, perhaps there are better ways to spend the time and money that goes into attending a conference? 🙂
Academic conferencing for dummies
The title of this post might sound harsh, but it’s exactly how I felt the first time I was at a scientific conference. I hadn’t prepared very well for attending this conference, because I was focused on presenting at this conference.