We are all familiar with rituals in conferences. In general, most conferences apply the same rituals regarding moderation panels, coffee breaks, lunches and dinners,

Of course dear Mahfuz I agree in some measure, with external view of similar structures, however there are many differences in details.

I have attended only 2 international educational conferences so far, but many national conferences. At international conferences, the interesting thing was to meet many educators from many countries. At the last one, there were participants from 25 countries. At the dinner, many of us were already full after the 3rd dish was served. So we sang national songs of Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia with the band. And I learned a few cultural dances :)

It was great to learn about the research in other countries through the presentations.

When I was a student I used to sit like the ones in the pic. Close to the entrance, so that I can move easily, in and out when needed :)

I have attended at least 10 international research conference in the last three years and the most common rituals (printed in the programs) are Singing of National Anthem, Prayer, Opening Remarks, Welcome Address, Mechanics, Intermission Number showing the cultural talents of the Host Institution's members, Introduction of Plenary Speakers/s, Speech, Open Forum (with Moderation). in the Plenary, Group Picture Taking with the Speaker

During the parallel sessions- Greetings by the Moderator, Introduction of the Presenters, Evaluators and Support Staff, Reading of the Mechanics and Rating System, Presentation, Question and Answer (with Moderation), Reading of Results

In addition to these are:

President's/Governor's/Mayor's Night where there are Cultural Presentations, each coming from the participants of every participating Country.

Tour (Visit to Relevant Nearby Places of the Host Country)

Dear All,

There are big conferences and small ones. In small conferences star attitudes cannot be seen. Generally, participants behave simply and politely. As to rituals, I were not able to recognise ritual like attitude patters. Most of the people are modest, they show rather some of their national characters but this make more interesting the event. Small conferences are really very familiar.

Regarding big conferences, the atmosphere is determined by politeness, and participants are more isolated from each others depending on their special fields and former personnel contacts. I have met some distinguished scientists but practically each of them was free and easy.

As table manners: at the beginning everybody start to speak in English but later people continue to chat in their native languages. Depending the nationally of participants I used to sit with French speaking colleagues. I generally used to speak the native language of my partner colleagues (German, French, English). I think knowledge standards of foreign languages may be but a little barrier among people when using a learned language. Generally, native speakers of English are sometimes difficult to understand and usually they speak no foreign languages.

Dear @Beata, there are many rituals during scientific conferences. "Elements and rituals of a scientific meeting" is a subject of the following article! "A scientific conference is meant to exchange thoughts and ideas. But it often ends up being an absurd but entertaining ritual"! It is fine reading!

http://bademian.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/elements-and-rituals-of-a-scientific-meeting/

Perhaps the most standard rituals are the conference party (which goes by the different names like wecome party or the conference dinner etc.) and, somewhat less common, the group photo of the participants.

Dear Beata, what I see at the present years that rituals during scientific conferences are limited except in some vigor regimes for the purpose of show off and propaganda. In some cases there might be celebrations of birthdays and achievements.

Dear All,

Abedallah showed some odd differences I have not experienced yet: “purpose of show off and propaganda”. I admit I have participated only in European conferences. It would be interesting to show these peculiarities of some meetings. I think this kind of experience collection would be useful for future conferences.

Dear Ljubomir,

I read the article you proposed to study. This was a totally new and strange world for me. I have never seen or experienced similar customs or rituals in European conferences.

Was it written on Martian events?

Very interesting Dr. Beata. In Brunei, everything should begin and end with recital of holy Quran or short prayers.

The one I attended in Perth years ago, they welcomed us with aboriginal performances. In the closing ceremony, the organisers invited us to dance along with folk music around the round tables.

Dear All, thank you for your thoughts and rituals from around the world.

I share some last conference impression from evening dinner, when spontaneously one professor from St. Petersburg in Russia, gave piano and singing concert. Situation was very interesting, because after he started to sing (was educated in singing) 3 professors from Belarus, went quickly to sing with him. I was impressed with this nice event. Where there is ritual ? someone may ask - my colleague from Grzegorzewska University said that professors from Russia like to share songs, everytime they join conference. Maybe this is some cultural tradition, not only conference ritual ?

I have observed that older organizations and professional associations tend to have developed specific rituals, traditions and customs for their annual conferences. The more recent organizations are still in development of these special distinctive traditions. I am more concerned with the death of most conferences in the future because the limited availability of money to pay for the cost of travel, hotel, and registration will limit many worthwhile younger scientists from attending.

One of the w@#$%rst rituals is having two days of continuous presentations /lectures. Seems to be very ineffective to me.

Going beginning of June to European Organisation for Quality Congress. I will keep my ears, eyes open.

Nice question Beata. Scientific conferences are just social relationships events, where people who work in similar areas know each other and if they also like themselves, then probably make a joint study, research, paper or just go out for a drink. The 'ritual' is what makes them funny, since all participants know that they have come there in order to amuse their time, but, we have to be serious, there must be a protocol!

Is receiving a reward or price during a conference a ritual (the best talk, the best poster,...), and if so how should it be interpreted from an evolutionary point of view?

Are rewards decided by the community and addressed to individuals only found in humans?

Dear Demetris, I agree there is protocol which must be followed. There are tensions before speeches. After that there are tasty dinners in general.

Dear Marcel, please answer the question you ask. You are evolutionist. I"m curious.

Dear Beata,

Some thoughts concerning rewards and rituals in an evolutionary framework. In birds, males can feed (=reward) females during displays (=ritual) perhaps to obtain (reproductive) benefits in the future. The interesting thing in humans is that rewards at conferences are given for what has been done in the past. Future benefits of these rewards might be to continue and reinforce existing social cohesion/collaboration among scientists that has been perceived as beneficial by the science community in the recent past. Another potential benefit is that of the social example to be copied to explain why old people finishing careers also get rewards.

Nice observations dear Carolina.

Dear Marcel, as humans we are not so far from birds, I suppose. Thank you both for interesting explanations.

Dear All,

When chatting about conference costume patterns not the ritual itself but its explanation would be essential.

What is the meaning of sunflower badges, young women in blue sari, high tea? Why should recital the holy Quran? Why do undergraduate or postgraduate students flatter main speakers? Can somebody decode these?

Great idea, dear Andras. Can you also decode some phenomena. Why while introducing to new colleagues, they are asking sometimes automatically: "from whom?" When I noticed such reactions, I had associations of ritual of looking for more powerfull "ghost behind" - rather alpha male leader, of prehistoric community, than person introducing him/herself.

The 'rituals' of the many research conferences I have attend are mostly all right.

Whta I have an issue with is that sometimes the organising committee appoint the committee members as keynot speakers.

Interesting answers that provide insights into how respondents are defining/understanding the complex concept of ritual. Is it a liturgical rote practice that demonstrates identification with the conference community or a theorised grasp of normative culture within those conferences. I rather like Catherine Bell's analysis of ritual as a dialectic process between practice and theory and think this could also be applied to scientific conferences.

Great question Beata!

If human conference rituals are not more than ' visual dialects' exposed to cultural evolution, they should obviously express spatiotemporal variation as already indicated above. What are the characteristics of the rituals (visual dialects, visual regiolects...) that are shared versus not shared across research domains, across regions, across countries, across continents?

Why do scientists exaggerate in public, e.g. at a conference (exaggerated clothes, exaggerated speeches, exaggerated gestures)? Not more than examples of sexual selection? The most exaggerated signal is selected......

Dear Beata,

I have never heard such questions ("from whom?") so I have no idea either on the situation or the meaning of the question. I am sorry.

Dear Marcel,

Dear All,

What do you mean on exaggerated clothes, exaggerated speeches, exaggerated gestures?

As to your note that these were like examples of sexual selection: some (many) try to stress themselves, their performance but often their hierarchical status - often without scientific or other merit – in order to make more firm their societal status of which dominant part is the illusion. I feel human evaluation operates like that. Thus, conferences can be considered as common human shows in front of a scientific audience.

As Marcel put it some elements of conferences are like the performance of a male bird produced during selection a mate.

Dear Beata and András,

I have heard a modification of your "from whom" question. It was "from where" and I think thats a very simular asking for something (institute, person) behind.

Dear Hanno, Dear Andras, Dear All,

This symbol "from whom ?" I observed in Poland especially on big scientific congresses. The famous professors asking such questions got clear and synthetic informations of the place particular person is taking on the map, of the inter-academic space. This is really interesting phenomena "from whom ?" as well as important rhetorical key and code in academic communication. Poland is not big country, and the "key whos" are simply countable. Dear Hanno, as you noticed - you found in Germany "from where ?" questions. From whom? - is more personalized or maybe discipline or ways of researches conditioned?

Dear Beata,

I think from where or from whom are the same questions, because to tell the institute tells also the "chief".

Hi all,

Anthropologists spend quite a bit of time carefully presenting themselves at conferences. A blog post from the most recent American Anthropological Association annual conference identified six "categories of anthropological fashion and/or fashion concern": http://savageminds.org/2013/11/20/conference-chic-or-how-to-dress-like-an-anthropologist/.

This is an interesting thread!

Dear Nicolas, I agree with key idea of the text - fashion is kind of social signal within scientific discipline. Since about 20 years I observe some regularities of fashion changes in educational areas. Speaking of special education conferences for last 10 years brought varieties and more informal clothes, especially wearing by women participants in Poland. Main trend was concerned with kind of rejection of classic suits with skirts, as well as avoidance of classic dark suits for any unconventional connections, style and colors in clothing during the panel sessions and presentations. The official part of the conference has become more casual in colors and forms of fashion.

I noticed that suits (if any) are usually vibrant, lush colors. There are also styles of dressing women, masking silhouette - long flowing robes, giving movement freedom. Preferred are also sets of trousers. Teachers from outside of Poland visiting conferences also prefer a less formal style and very cororful. I must say, that speakers are more elegant dressed, this did not change.

I have the impression that there is for last 10 years something like a departure from the haute couture in educational conferences for practical solutions. It happens in my opinion also because hotels are sometimes away from the conference venue and women, needing more time to prepare for official dinner and entertainment do not dress up, but since morning panel session they are already evening dressed. For years, I prefer rather French style of clothes, the black suits, dresses, and I have no problem to change the jewelry such as long earrings to look more "evening" during dinner and without them, more formally in the morning.

I share one of my images with variety of clothes and forms. I made this picture during official dinner at the last Grzegorzewska University conference 14-15 May 2014.

Dear Nicolas, Dear All, I also noticed that during the last conference in special education, I mentioned above - succulent blue or varieties of blue color were preferred by women, form many countries: Poland, US., Russia, Belarus. I share other my picture - here are sitting two women professors, one form US - Florida, and the other from Russia - Kazan, wearing blue suits during panel sessions. They both were elegant speakers also because of their hairstyles.

From a functional point of view, signals like colors induce feelings and thoughts. When you are in front of someone giving an oral presentation at a conference, do you focus on what is told or do you focus on what is visually perceived (e.g. clothes and their colors)? Can visual signals reduce efficiency in oral communication? What is an optimal design in expression of vision-based rituals versus rituals stimulating other human senses?

Hi Kamal,

- I don't think that a loudspeaker without human presence in front of an audience would be very efficient methods in oral conference communications.

- I don't think you have costs or benefits of distraction with written publications, but perhaps I am wrong. Are there human-defined rituals expressed in written scientific publications? Perhaps to be handled in another question?

Dear Kamal, this is very interesting religious ritual, in Muslim countries, thank you for sharing. I did not observe such ones in my country, except such accents during strictly Catholic grounded conferences or seminars I participated.

Dear Marcel, you asked good questions. From my point of view (as woman qualitative researcher) I'm always confronted with sensual effects during conferences. I perceive conference appearences of speakers in general as visual-hearing-fragrance = esthetic performances. I'm listening carefully too being quickly bored sometimes. But not seeing or noticing what people are wearing on faces (masks), bodies, what hairstyles they have, how they behave while shaking hands, is surely impossible for me. Social and cultural life is so interesting.

Dear Beata,

they told me that women are much more sensitive to details and their subtle variations than men.

Anyway, this seems to be the case in birds. Males probably focus on performance whereas females focus on perception of performance, at least in some songbirds... Females are apparently much more perceptive to subtle variations in bird song than male singers.

To stimulate further discussion:

- Do you know rituals for which there is simply not an explanation?

- Is there a difference between conference rituals at the community level (organized by the organizers) and the individual level (the participants)? Perhaps participants may follow individual-specific rituals to reduce stress before a talk.

Brilliant ideas dear Marcel.

Dear Michelle, thank you for contribution.

In India, a conference, national or international, generally will begin with registration session followed by inaugural session, where a lamp will be lighted by one VIP first then joined by others on the Dias, symbolizing Goddess of Knowledge "Saraswati" as a respect as well as to seek her blessing for a successful beginning and completion of the event, some times prayer/song is also sung. Followed by the inaugural, presidential, key note, guest of honor lectures, then break for tea. Then first session or many parallel sessions will start. Then break for Lunch and tea. All lavish lunches and dinners are sponsored ones. Some times cultural programs are also organised after dinner. A real good opportunity/time for meeting/eating/knowing/networking with people of your domain.

In all, it is good to attend such conferences/seminars, you get new ideas/collaborations for your work/study and some times good friends too.

Dear Prof. Ravi, thank you for contribution. I perceive ritual you shared, as well as this Kamal mentioned - very interesting and spiritually oriented - giving additional dimension to the scientific conferences.

I am member of one European organisation's group which purpose is to disccuss things in advance and to prepare materials for top-level decisions.

Long time ago somebody really bright suggested to use the first names only in order to remove barriers caused by age, reputation, position, titles and all that stuff and to allow discussions on friendly basis. It took me some time to get used to this approach, but is has been working quite nicely since the time when I joined.

Dear Marcel, answering your question about rituals used for reducing stress, I noticed for years one of them called: re-reading texts before speech (if without visual presentation) and using colored markers to synthetize thoughts for improvement the speech without reading. On the image I shared above, the professor from US - is before her speech, preparing herself, I suppose - coping with reducing stress.

Proved way for me for reducing stress while speaking before large auditorium, is short, introductory smile before speech. This is my way of reducing stress using facial muscles. How about yours dear Marcel, dear All ?

"There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave" (Dale Carnegie)

Right dear Jesus, great observation, I agree completely.

A good and profound question. Imagine how nice it is to be ingaged in modelling human social behaviour professionally, as I am in my activities of social simulation. Every conference is a field study for me, full of humans in the wild, trying to find their place in the various sub-groups and pecking orders. For these aims, where you sit in the room has meaning; which lectures you attend or shirk; who you speak to during breaks...

Dear Gert, you are right about us, humans in the wild ( jungle ?) wanting to feel flash somehow. I notice that too, many times. Every aspects you pointed out are really good fields for observations. I agree conferences are good areas for studies human social behavior, while meeting well known colleagues and meeting new ones. This is also place for thinking inspirations sometimes.

Yes, dear Kamal, you are right FTF is important in academic environments. I really like such feeling during conferences, when I listen to inspiring research results or even parts of moving speeches.

How important are coffee breaks we know. I think coffee breaks also secure psychological hygene during conferences. I share coffee break image from last conference I was in May in Warsaw. I notice that, people after extensive listening and sitting simply had to speak. Speaking is giving balance to our "teaching" habits, I think. On the image I'm speaking too, with my friend from, Gdansk University. I worked with her for a few years, some time ago. Right upper corner. (source : Grzegorzewska University)

We should not forget to involve our students to take part in the conferences, since there are many opportunities for them. They will learn about more recent advances in the scientific field, find possible partners for future cooperation,meet many researchers, improve their knowledge...,... but also they will learn about RITUALS! They will socialize themselves and gather more experience for next Conference! I have attended many conferences with my students and I have insisted that they should present the joint paper!

I think, all the international conferences are directed to find "common ground". Thus, my favorite conferences "Arts in Society", (Liverpool)"Arts and Sciences", (Gottenheim),"West and East: Dialogue of Cultures"(Moscow State University"), or "Yaroslavl Reading" on Cognitology with their special cultural rituals were the greatest examples of cross-cultural communication on the foundation of peace, democracy,friendship, national and general cultural and intellectual values..Uniqueness of conferences depend on organizers and the cultural peculiarities where one or another conference takes place. Thus in Liverpool, there were a lot of discussions, we discussed problems even during the breaks. I liked the ritual of acquaintance.All the participants one by one presents own conception in short and all the rest encourage each other.It's characteristic of "Arts and Sciences" to be highly democratic. During the presentation in the section, listeners may drink French wine or eat fruit.Cultural programs lead to friendship, emotional and intellectual enrichment, remove language barriers. It's the greatest chance to feel oneself free, interesting, happy.As a rule a conference is a place for like-minded - enthusiastic, optimistic, humanistic, highly intellectual personalities.

Dear Irina, I appreciate your comment and really nice image. It seems to me unusual ritual to drink French wine or eat the fruits during sessions, on regular conferences, because I think that people wouldn't be able to listen with full attention to the last speech, in the late afternoon. Your rituals remind me of art exhibitions openings, which are almost always with champagne or wine. Anyway, very pleasant ritual. Speaking a little bit facetiously, I believe any language barriers can fall after French wine. Thank you dear Irina, for showing the enthusiastic side of our professional lives.

Dear Beata,

Thank you for your warm-hearted words. I highly appreciate your sense of humor. Thank you, once again. Our dear organizers said, that during Shakespeare's ingenious plays the audience had eaten nuts. It's my favorite photo from this unusual and highly friendly conference. Are we rather happy and wise-oriented at our parallel session?

Dear Irina, I like your nice remark about Shakespeare's plays audience. Fortunately for actors, they ate only nuts not melons, in case the play wouldn't be accepted by them. Speaking about audience present on the international conference, I was in May in Warsaw - students sat on the stairs and behind the chairs, however there were free places. I went up there and noticed, that students were sitting on the floor, speaking to each other, some of them were listening to the speeches, the other were sending messages or maybe spending time online.

I like these students. They don't like to be formal. We,being students, sat on the floor, too, in the concerts. They feel free themselves- it's wonderful.This conference in MSU (Lomonosov's)- you see, there are a lot of participants, including students.The reporters are Professor from America and Professor of MSU.The students are highly interested in the theme.

Dear Irina, I can see we use the same lighting in our faculty buildings. The students ate the conference seem preoccupied with speeches. Nice image. Thank you.

Interesting question. In addition to other suggestions above, a few things come to mind.

The keynote address is a must. It asserts hierarchy, directs discourse, sets agendas and maybe even sets boundaries on discourse.

At smaller workshops, the group photo is quite common. Most people seem to groan about it, but it is nearly always done. It is useful to remember the event and the individuals involved.

The larger disciplinary conferences often feature alma mater reunion parties or receptions, sometimes formally, sometimes informally - where X University hosts networking, revelry and reminds scholars of their professional roots.

Grad students raiding hors d'ouevres tables and open bar events?

I'd love to see a full-blown Durkheimian analysis of conference as ritual for group cohesion and regulation, so I'll look forward to more on this topic.

There are different rituals. Roberto Kant de Lima referred to some of them in Brazil in his publication "Quando os indios somos nos", some time ago. There is also Rabinow's paper "A Modern Tour of Brazil", etc. I guess that if one would write to you about the experiences from his/her country, that would make him/her deeply unpopular... But, joking aside, I find that the major international meetings (like the IUAES) are highly ritualized and perhaps worthy of an anthropological study.

Dear @Todd, thank you for thoughts and contribution. It probably will not be my main purpose to give Durkheimian analysis because I prefer F. Boas, R. Benedict, C. Geertz and their approach to the culture in general. But your idea sounds interesting anyway.

Dear @Aleksandar, I suppose that you are right about tacit knowledge behind curtains of official side of the conference. If someone on RG would go deeper to highlight any shadows he/she would feel a risk of becoming unpopular on RG.

So we all choosed to balance on the safe surface, without bravery of telling about the shadows of rituals during conferences. Although maybe someone braver would share structure of the shadows ?

I'm a humble idealist, because I have never met bad rituals during a lot of my conferences or seminars. I'm sure, perception of conferences depends on a personality only. I think, a grace-cup of French wine or sitting on the floor are such bad rituals, which can spoil the reputation of the conference, which is extremely intellectually intensive. Besides, true scientists and researchers are the most intellectual, tolerant and humanistic persons in the world (I mean RG, or participants of international conferences). They are not hunkers with rigidly patriarchal and stringently ruled habits.A venue is the only democratic place, where intellectuals can feel free, self-actualized, and called-for.

Dear Irina, I like your enthusiastic and idealistic perspective. I don't think sitting on the floor is a bad ritual. Many things depend on cultural contexts. I can imagine that professional meetings in Japan could be conducted around the table, but sitting places on the floor. Speaking of shadows, I had in mind also difficulties while organization of conferences and coping with science celebrities and scientific stars.

Dear Beata,

So many images... thank you all. I've often wondered over the years about the extent to which scientific meetings have been "governed" by the rituals that attendees (and conference organizers themselves!) have participated in. I recall once taking off on my own at the end of a conference and walking through the nearby hills - and ultimately being invited to dinner at a local home - while everyone else stayed at the big hotel and did their scientific social posturing. At the time I remember wondering if I was any different from all the rest of the attendees, following my instincts as it were while others were following theirs in different ways. Completely unsure of course, but it became habitual for me to see how folks often partake in the "same old" behavior patterns except for a few who do their own thing -- each set of behaviors being self-defined.

There is a good discussion of ritual behavior at scientific conferences to be found at http://bademian.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/elements-and-rituals-of-a-scientific-meeting/

--- how many folks reading these posts can identify with what the authors describe?

Dear Alan, thank you a lot for your comments, and your inspirational article. I called my favorite (I love all the conferences!) conference in Liverpool (organizers were from Illinois) "Arts in Society" as "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind"(Neil Aiden Armstrong). Let me replace one more photo, please, dear Beata.

There are my friends and our favorite Bill with his wife.After the conference.

Dear all,

It has been a pleasure to read all these comments. From the perspective of an archaeologist who has attended seminars and conferences in several parts of the world, I would like to make two personal remarks.

The first one is that, no matter how good the presentations are, and fortunately many times they are all very interesting, the best, most exciting intellectual exchange happens in the coffee/beer at the end of the day, a very common ritual that has provided me with brilliant and exciting moments of discussion among colleagues.

These rituals also have a second advantage. Students attending these events for the first time are able to meet their professors or the scholars they follow in a more personal environment. This humanization of the professors can be very beneficial for both sides, and a very good way for students to start developing their own professional network far beyond the classrooms.

Dear @Irina and @Emilio thank you for valuabe comments. Dear @Irina I always feel comfortable, when art is around. You shared inspiring and "airy" image from conference.

Dear @Emilio, I also value cafeteria as important place of exchanging ideas in less formal contexts. You are also right (what Kamal has noticed) about the humanization of professors. Thank you.

Let me share some image, made by one of my colleagues, after I National Methodological Seminar in Special Education, which was held on 3rd December in 2013 at my faculty. The entire idea and concept were my, but organization was supported by my colleagues from the faculty. I choosed that date, because 3rd. December is International Day of Persons with Disabilities and also because I like winter conferences. On the picture are we (but not all) special pedagogues, from key Polish universities (Crakow, Warsaw, Gdansk, Poznan, Szczecin, Torun) in not so formal situation but after tasty dinner. As you see on the image, we are in good moods and friendly (I'm wearing black as almost always). Success of the seminar, was associated wih good participants, a lot of discussions time, after every two speeches. Besides, my idea with seminar will be continued at other universities. The second will be held at Silesia University in Cieszyn in 2015 - this is the success.

Probably you are already aware of Gary Larson's joke:

http://classes.yale.edu/05-06/chem220a/private/gallery/liebowitz1.gif

I think it's important to distinguish between rites of passage as described by Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner, versus ritualised behaviour in animals and human routines whose utility is purely social (such as shaking hands). All conferences have the three-phase structure (if not the function) of rites of passage - registration and some kind of welcoming event, the meeting itself (distinctly liminal), and a final "good bye" event. An article you may find amusing, in which a conference is insightfully misinterpreted as a ritual, is "A stone-age anthropologist looks at Tucson III", Tjiniman Murinbata, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 5, No. 4, 1998, pp. 504–7. Easily found online.