Conferences are a part of academic life, culture and effort. There are many types of conferences all over the world. Some are well organized and some are not so well organized. Also, conferences differ in the caliber and number of academics they attract and by the quality of work that go into post conference publications. It is important for academics to choose carefully and correctly the conference to attend in order to get the needed mileage in career and also benefit from exposure, currency and quality of knowledge on offer.
Hi,
The conferences I attend should cover "hot" subject in my research area, and there should be a chance of meeting several key researchers that could contribute to my knowledge in my research field. The conference should not cover too many study areas if attendants are looking for an in depth analysis of few subjects.
I agree with Avishag. For me, the major point of conferences is the networking opportunities they present. The downside is having to listen to lots of poor-ish papers! Sometimes I feel my time would be better spent on my own work. But there is also lots of fun and friendship to be had. I wonder whether in future the whole conference format won't be scrapped in favour of electronic conferencing? Much better for the environment!
The conference should show a bias in my discipline and research interest in order that opportunity is seized for acquisition of new knowledge. This, I believe, is a function of the conference theme(s) which should be known prior to interest declaration.
However, the conference should be adequately timed in terms of program duration as well as reasonably affordable to make room for proper usage of scarce resources.
Thanks Prof Laurence, I sometimes feel what you feel with some conference presentations but at every conference a presenter strikes a knowledge chord that is significant and makes the effort and travel put in to attend the conference worthwhile. Also, I even get ideas for future papers from perspectives gained from a paper that may not be top rate.
As one progresses in the field, one begins to differentiate among several conferences. Presently, I prefer to be on the look out for conferences that will be indexed in databases like Scopus database for example. Although, getting papers accepted in such conferences most times require putting extra effort and doing a good research and may be expensive too especially if outside ones country. Such conferences usually present the opportunity to network with great minds and sometimes opportunity for collaborators.
Presenting papers in a conference is a key for attending it, meeting with big names is very interesting, but they are usually busy, unless there is some business with them (authoring a book, invite for keynotes......).
Affecting career, on the long term.
Virtual conferences is an interesting idea, thanx Laurence.
It is always good to attend international conference so as to build lasting connections with experts in one's chosen field.
Yasser, you sure got it right. By the time you run the parallel sessions‘schedule, and the other designed activities, there would be little or no time for meaningful interactions. Sometimes, it even becomes competition for the attention of the ‘star’. However, some conference organizers design their conferences for deep interactions. I had that experience at the UNISA 2018 conference on ‘Boundaries‘.
I attend conferences in my fields of research. I also look for it's credibility and whether it will inure to my academic growth since few or no grants are often awarded for the conferences lately in my institution.
Thanks Dickson for giving voice to the challenge of the lack of access to grants for academics in some countries.
I got my first job in the first conference I attended in my new country. It is a meeting place and a place to recruit.
True Imran, some conferences are held to rake in and pre-qualify papers for publication in a journal.
Yes Michael, some conferences are beyond paper presentation and do much more. That was my experience at the recently concluded MLA 2019 Conference on Textual Transactions. It was a mega MLA event showcasing the breadth of MLA development and awareness of her commitments to develop the fields of Language, Literature, humanities and Culture. There were job fairs, strategy sessions, departmental fora, countless workshops, coaching sessions, interactions between and with digital platform operators, writers, editors, publishers and of course colleagues even amidst panels, symposium and presentations.
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