Short answer:

To get some benefits: publicity for your paper if you are presenting, learning more about your subjects of research and meet some people. Almost always you will gain a lot in all aspects.

Thank you Michael for your insightful response.

What are your expectations when attending a conference ?

My expectations include:

Frankly, improve of my knowledge and meet new experts in my field

Good discussion on researches, networking, social connections, and enjoying.

Unfortunately, at times I get disappointed when networking and collaborations during conferences fail to materialize as much as we anticipate.

I have distributed my name cards yes. I guess I can't be so ambitious and focus on establishing rapport with at least 1 good collaboration per conference. Thank you Ian. Appreciate your pointer !

To have a good time, meeting interesting people. In case of collaborations, the situation would be ideal. 

Dear Malini, I expect to:

1. Find a comfortable place to communicate, with good technological support(although  apreciate Humberto's wish not to fall asleep...);

2. Finf good facilities to be able to meet others, and exchange views;

3. Above all, I expect to be able to learn some from others, so I hope there will be thorough selection of the quality of communications to be delivered.

This, of course implies finacial expenses, but I should wish not to spend too much money.

In fact, the perfect conference is very difficult to achieve...

@Ian_Kennedy Ian's plan seems a workable one. It is always a good idea to give rather than receive.

I am guessing participation in your discussions is assumed to be the level of interest in your field by organizers and as the indicator of quality of your work by you implicitly. Both of these would turn out to be fallacious. Neither is attention a given nor is it dependent or correlated effectively to the content and your salience.

I believe one can the create the right expectations of the conference in oneself and prepare accordingly. One should look to get more than one feedback for your research contribution. Getting a collaborator for the future would be a real bonus one needs from such an investment of time and resources.

To summarize these and other objectives we assume for a conference:

1. Facilities and succinct reviews for paper selection

2. Time and courtesy for everyone in the area of interest you belong to and for each such area of interest served by the conference. The conference should not try to be everything for everyone.

3. Panel discussants (Moderators in a non academic conference) for each area/paper being discussed to allow for an erudite discussion and thus I guess more engagement with the author(you/me)

4. Printed proceedings with the program for the conference and the one later to include comments.

5. It seems from the flow of other answers that participants are also interested in a soapbox of their achievements. That would definitely crowd the calendar of the conference and is not feasible.

6. Sufficient time and space to make travel arrangements

And of course, to learn something new. In addition, I expect consistency by the Organizers. This, from my experience, is not always certain.

Yes, organization is important. But if you take something new, they could feel uncertain how to present it, like taking it to a petite group which was not your intention upon applying for a space in the conference. Participating with former Eastern countries faced me with their own interest was first! But great experience traveling there anyway.

Hello,

I appreciated the excellent contributions already placed. For my part, I believe that conversation, face to face contact is the best part of it, being a irreplaceable aspect. Often these conversations result in considerable gains beyond the conference itself goals!

I and other colleagues of mine who have attended conferences can confidently say that the time and travel expenses of attending a conference are well worth it. While webinars, podcasts, whitepapers, and other materials can be accessed from your computer, consider that “live events—conferences, workshops, lunch and learns–provide unique learning and career building opportunities that you just can’t find anywhere else,” says Rich Brooks, Agency Director at Flyte New Media.

The following are five great benefits for seeking out and attending a conference:

---Sharpen Your Skills

---Become an Expert 

---Networking Opportunities 

---Get Energized and Focused

---Gain New Ideas, Tools, and Tactics  

https://careers.icims.com/for-job-seekers/article-5-reasons-you-should-attend-conference-2016

hi all,

I recently 'discovered' a conference publication most interesting to my own field of research. The conference was held in St. Petersburg in 2014 about late Lao She. The entire publication is over 500 pages.  Most papers are written in Chinese, with sporadic papers written in English and Russian.  It has a ISBN#.  I'd like to make the whole or part of this publication available to much larger Chinese readership through my own channel of resellers/contacts.  I plan to write to the publisher but if I don't hear from them,  I plan to write to writers directly to get their permission of a separate compilation. 

Any advice or anyone had any experience of re-packaging and re-market of conference materials? 

Thank you in advance for any suggestion.

Susan

Its a great opportunity to get a critical review of a research, especially when there different perspectives. Its a good  place to network and collaborate with like minded scholars. I found conferences to be a source of enrichment and helps to build your existing schema of thoughts. Personally I have encountered new methods which have made me curious and helped me to add it to my research work. 

Sharing and gathering info/knowledge

networking and  collaborating

In order to develop and calibrate good rapport with your audience, you need to attend to these six conference audience expectations:

1. Cutting-edge information

Audiences don’t want information that is outdated and regurgitated on the internet. They want the most current, cutting-edge information available.

2. Customized information that solves their problems.

Audience members arrive at the conference with specific problems that they expect to solve. They are searching for answers to these problems. They expect your conference to deliver solutions customized to them.

3. Time for discussion

For learning to occur, participants need to discuss the information, share ideas, make meaning of the content and dialogue with others as they deepen their understanding of the topic.  

4. Time to create an implementation plan

Conference audiences need time in each education session to decide how they will apply what they just learned. This is a critical and often ignored part of most conferences.

5. To be entertained

Audiences still expect to be entertained, regardless of the content. Some have dubbed this expectation “infotainment” or “edutainment.”  And it needs to do so in an entertaining way.

6. To have fun

Who said learning, education and information had to be boring anyway? It should be entertaining and fun. If not, it’s just a waste of time

http://velvetchainsaw.com/2011/04/28/conference-audiences-expect-these-things/

Some useful interaction with peers doing similar kind of research. 

Benefits of conferences

• Access to the knowledge and expertise of others:
• Conferences provide a fun environment to enjoy the extra-curricular conference program
• Gain access to the information, knowledge, experience and expertise of peers.
• Share your information and expertise:
• Network & contacts: Conferences provide an excellent opportunity to develop contacts and to network with researchers working in the same area
• Enjoying the keynote presentations
• Seeing a new place!

Dear Prof.Malini,

Its a nice question which every academicians want share about.

Here are some of My expectation in any conference.

• Interaction with expert team
• Giving the suggestion to the learned members (through Q and A)
• Getting the suggestion from the learned members (through Q and A)
• Growing the network with academicians, for future discussions

Dear Malini Ganapathy , I expect nice gathering of the similar theme area scientist, sufficient time to communicate or presentation and good discussion. Of course nice accommodation and entertaining knowledgeable pre/post conference tour. Thanks

To improve my knowledge in the field, to “set my watch”,  to present and discuss our own results, to meet with colleagues from other institutions and countries, to start new collaborations, to meet old and new friends, to exchange ideas ... I always try to find some time to look and feel the place… Each conference is, a new step in my professional development, a new door open to the world.

First is to mingle myself with prominent scholars in my fields and get to know them further for future engagement in research and publication or other academic related activities. Second is to broaden my networks, pave my path be more global scholar rather than to be a scholar or an expert only in my small school or university. Third is to measure myself with those experts and scholars: what is my current level, what I need to do to be like those scholars, and what are new or latest issues that those scholars are engaged in. Fourth, be proud to be at the same venue with those prominent scholars and perhaps snap some photos with them (This is a bonus of attending a conference).

In addition to the previous answers, I want feedback on my paper (especially for other scholars in the subdiscipline to catch any mistakes I made). I try to get an expanded version of every conference paper I present published, so I use the conference presentation as a form of peer review.

Only I want to hear questions and criticisms from the audience.

First is to discuss face to face with experts in my area of research. Second is a forum to learn from others.

Indeed, Bernard. It'll give us an opportunity to interact with other academics and form our networking circle. Thanks for your input!

1. Air conditioning (I have been at a conference where the heat interfered with the conference objectives)

2. Social opportunities to talk with other attendees

3. Interesting session topics that I could choose based on my research interests

Time to meet other attendees

time for discussion about research updates

time to learn new themes,new things.....

A conference provide the opportunity to meet scholars from other global region, to share the learning and get research updates.

Foreign food: fabulous food!

I expect only conference have NO registration fee ;)

Learning + interaction with colleagues + participation in discussion. At this age also intend to share my experience

Regards

Attending a conference is the opportunity to listen and observe the others research, their way of presentation, and meet old friends, make new friends and most importantly enjoy the variety of delicious foods.

let you communicate with the others