There are many reasons including the many already mentioned on this forum. From academic holiday, to networking, to meeting the keynote speakers for advise, to create connections with researchers of similar interests, to enjoy the extra-curricular conference program, etc... Therefore, the joy of attending conferences brings with it improvement and incremental growth in our approach to do things, in the broader manner to see things, and the beauty to live international diversity.

Academic conferences are good for networking (meeting new scholars and also those whom you already know): you can discuss ideas for future co-operation and sometimes also work on ongoing projects/papers. Sometimes conferences are also good for getting new ideas and understanding what is becoming 'hot' on your topic (as journals are always a bit late because their publication process is longer). Some conferences are also good as the organizers will publish several papers later in a special issue of a journal or in a book, but it is not always easy to get accepted to those publications as they only publish a few papers or as they only publish papers on a narrow topic, not all conference topics.

Personally Rafael, while many will disagree, I rarely attend conferences. I used to, and come away with a handful of business cards and networking arrangements that never really materialized into anything. I agree with Tiia that they are useful venues for putting new research findings out there - but I still believe that, until they are in international print, they are not very citable. I've never had a conference preceding cited as far as I know. I have more success from those that approach me by email etc - than from conference.

Of course, It's great to travel and get 'away from the office' and that, to me, is the main benefit of conferences (an academic holiday) - but does that count? Whenever I see academics who have conference lists as long as your arm (but few published articles) as their featured research profile - I am always very wary!!

Justyna - an eloquent response and, for those reasons. I would agree that conferences are a good thing. Perhaps I've always attended the ones that never really inspire me in that respect. Perhaps I should be more selective.

There are many reasons including the many already mentioned on this forum. From academic holiday, to networking, to meeting the keynote speakers for advise, to create connections with researchers of similar interests, to enjoy the extra-curricular conference program, etc... Therefore, the joy of attending conferences brings with it improvement and incremental growth in our approach to do things, in the broader manner to see things, and the beauty to live international diversity.

Signing up for a conference for a presentation is a great tool to discipline yourself and put yourself under pressure to produce and to present in front of people who might ask nasty questions. Struggling with a time limit of 10 minutes to present not in your mother tongue hurts but will make you tough!

One might see the conference paper also as a precursor of a follow-up publication in mind (never vaste it to proceedings!) and a forum where you get valuable feed-back what needs to be improved. Meetings where commentators are assigned to papers are particularly useful in this respect, because at least one person will have read and reviewed your paper very carefully.

Finally identifying interesting people who might collaborate with you in future comparative research projects can be of great use in times where you need interdisciplinary, international and interinstitutional coalitions to compete successfully for funds. So meetings who show diversity are a blue chip.

Ah, yes almost forgot, meetings in Italy feature in addition the best food ... :)

Go for it!

Yea, Harald, I forgot to mention the excellent local food varieties. Food for thought!

I do attend conferences. It helped me to expand network, and some fruitful discussions. Additionally, for young researchers, it is an opportunity to find the research group/professor with whom he can continue his work (as a post doc, research associate etc). Contacts during a conference helps during the interview process also. Furthermore, some conference proceedings are indexed in search engines, so it is the best way to publish your results fast.

All that you have written is interesting. I attend conferences to present my research (R&I) papers. It was difficult to find a journal that I could send them to. Besides that my research is continuous. Recently I found out (from the journal Pertanika) that for Science papers, the things that I have presented at conferences cannot be sent to journals. Recently (last month) I met the committee members of 2 journals at a conference in Penang. One was an online journal that accepted Action Research; that was a boon.

Besides presenting my papers, I make several friends and we help one another to keep track of the parallel sessions. The timing of these sessions are often changed at the last minute, so we help one another to be alert. So far, I managed to attend all these sessions. After the conference, when I get back to work, I continue to keep in touch with most of them. I also attend the workshops. Such a lot to learn; I'm very often late for meals.

There are usually several conferences in any given subject in the course of a year in the same continent. For a conference to be successful, the average attendant should answer positively a number of questions such as, for instance: how many new ideas have I witnessed being developed; how much time have I saved myself “in the library” by attending this conference; how well was my presentation received (poster or talk) and how many new useful contacts have I made; etc. etc. Let alone the always welcome opportunity to visit different places and be in a stimulating environment.

If the conference was so well organized as to allow you to answer positively all those (and more) questions, then I would make a point in attending it also next year… and so on.

To share professional and academic experiences as well as networking

One major advantage of attending conferences is capitalizing on the diversity of the group of participants a fact that energizes opinions, ideas, and possible collaborations among researchers. Another advantage is widening the scope of the researcher's network to get acquainted with scientific applications of concepts that may be considered classical but not researched under different context.

Since I have joined the discussion late, I had to read all your comments at once. I can say the following: participation in international conferences can not bring anything bad, on the contrary! Thanks to the participation in many international conferences, I had visited all the continents except Australia. Such different experiences are always valuable ( not only scientific one)!

At many conferences, there are way more posters presented than oral presentations / workshops etc. A recent enquiry of mine revealed that the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America hosted over 3000 posters at their event (nice earner for them & plenty of opening for 'presentation'). People say that attending the conference helps them to network, share their work & interact with 'like-minded' people, so socialization is a big aspect of attendance.

We look at the keynote presentations / workshops being presented & this can help us select one conference over another. Oral presentation slots are limited & very competitive. Workshops, round tables etc. are also limited and very theme-specific.

Poster presentations may encourage our institutions to fund our attendance, but many of those who present posters say they have difficulty engaging passers-by, selling their research, competing with coffee & food etc. They get the benefits of attendance but the actual poster presentation yields limited gain. How many people anticipate the poster events as being more than 'decorative' & would it help if they were made more 'formal' - e.g. by pre-notification, short paper accompaniment or facilitated sessions? Additionally, would it help oral & poster presenters if their papers & posters were 'published' after the event (beyond the usual 300 word abstract in proceedings) & disseminated to the global audience via perhaps an on-line multidisciplinary conference journal or repository? Such an organ may have limited 'IF' but it would reach a bigger audience & help spread their work (& maybe make further contacts).

I agree with all the comments about networking, professional engagement etc., but apart from the already well established presenters, do those that make the effort to engage get enough return for their efforts (after all, it often costs [someone] a significant amount of money to attend a non-local conference). Can we make the content of conferences (if not the interaction) go further than a few short days and add value for those presenting?

Nicholas has touched a very sensitive point; that of "asking a conference how much it can do for you" (to paraphrase a portion of a famous citation). I tried to address this point in my earlier message but perhaps I should articulate it better.

Any conference should strive to make the attendees happy, that is to give them enough satisfaction to compensate for the effort (both intellectual and financial) of participating. This can only be achieved if we all contribute to promoting those Conferences that appear to be successful in our opinion and deserting those which do not stand up to expectation. It may be a rather utilitaristic way of looking at the whole matter but since we as researchers are also called upon, in turn, in the direct making of our Conferences (as organizers, conveners, peer reviewers of submitted abstracts, etc. etc.) it is also our duty to work in order to satisfy ourselves and make the Conference we are attending (and working for) a success (and not in economic terms, or at least not only !).

Once these principles are secured, I think there remains the enjoyment of a pleasant few days spent with our favorite subject in a stimulating environment, in a pleasant location, hopefully in the pleasant company of respectful colleagues and, last but not least, with the accompaniment of good food and drinks!

Nicholas and Romano brought forward very important points. That is looking at the role of both sides of the people involved. Yes, it is a major responsibility to add enough matter within the conference scientific content and attractiveness however usually enforced further by the selection of the keynote speakers and how much they bring with them in scientific content and controversy as well. On the other side, it is the responsibility of the participant to plan well for the sessions of interest and making a list of possible candidates from among the presenters and posters for possible deliberations. So, there is a homework to do by the parties involved.

Also, not to forget the program itself, how is it designed with how many breaks and the planning for the Q/A opportunities either within the sessions, panels, poster spots and the social space.

Beside the social fun we seek in conferences let us remind ourselves that the scientific research "fun" can also be enjoyed tremendously especially if approached from a "hunger to learn" angle.

Cheers (:-)))))

Each pursues its own interests when visiting academic conferences. Therefore, to give a definite answer is very difficult. Common is the desire to satisfy their individual needs to participate in the conference.

So is attending conferences egotisticaly motivated?

Same subject in

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Are_academics_attending_conferences_just_for_the_sake_of_presenting_papers_or_are_they_looking_for_a_plausible_solution_to_their_research?cp=re65_x_p2&ch=reg&loginT=-CI5-pSCcYpQpZeYssG1OWT63izCnGYd3UxWBs5iMuE50sBfvhBhyg%2C%2C&pli=1#view=52d66583d685cc50088b4612

When times were better and funding was higher - I used to attend conferences to present my ideas, be introduced to those in the field, enlarge my network, and be introduce to journal editors.

Well, with the lack of funding this might be something from the past - not the future.

What a loss!

Thanks and regards

Theodora Issa

The point of attendance and participation in scientific conferences is face to face communication, live but not written words which are not possible in the journals, exchange of experience and constant learning and new knowledge, both in science and in other fields.

I am inviting you to join our next online Journal Presentation WEBINAR on June 25th, 2014.

This time, the editors of the Independent Journal of Management & Production (IJM&P) will tell us more about their journal and the type of authors and content they are looking for, so giving the chance to our academic community to network with them and get first insight of their journal and main objectives for the coming years.

Thank you.

http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/1955597-journal-presentations-independent-journal-of-mgmt-production

Since this forum in on academic networking and behavior, please allow me to post an invitation here:

We develop a research investigating the way academic networks function. Please, help us to better understand this topic, by answering to the following survey. It will take up to 5 minutes. Also, it would be of great help if you send the invitation to your colleagues in India, no matter their university and research profile.

Thank you for taking the time to fill out the following questionnaire!

The questionnaire addresses the entities and activities within your online social networks which you created or joined based on your academic or research interests. Thus, each of the items below refers to the so-called online professional networks (e.g. ResearchGate, Academia.edu, LinkedIn, CoP, etc.).

I've invited you to fill out the form QUESTIONNAIRE. To fill it out, visit:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1qS6xrtKd-TFFUySIOfTWSckM3lpSkaHA8lAfZVCFYVQ/viewform?c=0&w=1&usp=mail_form_link

Thank you

Alexandra Zbuchea

Why are you attending academic conferences? It is a duty of the profession, attending academic conferences is one of the components of the research program funding. Each researcher is funded through public or corporate finances or budget  to disseminate his/her work with peers and discuss/review it at professional level, at least one time a year

That is right dear @Fairouz. There is no better opportunity for sharing and discussing our research results alive, face to face! Young researchers should attend conferences that cover their research topics in order to acquire an excellent experience for future.

Dear @Ljubomir it is as well the best opportunity to improve or correct the work and make good quality published papers, in addition to networking opportunities. As well face to face discussions enable to distinguish between the true and wrong 'or cheating' researchers, that could enables the scientific communauty too to make a listing or a mailing list of wrong scientists

Fairouz- where did the bit about discovering dubious scientists come from?

Dear @Nicholas, there are many threads discussed in RG on dubious scientists. https://www.researchgate.net/search.Search.html?type=question&query=cheating

Fairouz:  I understand other threads have discussed cheating (mainly student focused). I was just interested to know how & why you linked it with attending conferences?  My only contact with such an issue has been when delegates (mainly from the sciences) are reluctant to present their whole results in papers/posters because of a fear that others will 'scoop' them (take their information & publish/use it before it is made public knowledge).

Whilst we have discussions with each other at conferences (which is great), it never occurred to me that some groups of people may be making a list of 'wrong' scientists ... I would normally just agree to disagree & leave it at that.

Nicholas, attending conferences and speaking face to face with peers could be a helpful mean to distinguish between scientists. Many times in some working places and some developing countries, people are able to make scientific careers and titles through  published papers with their added names( by means of corruption ) without any real scientific collaboration. Many of them hold diplomas but  are not able to master any scientific terminology from their field. Those are not real scientists may  be business men who corrupt science and research for some hidden interests.

You are right that sometimes results could be scooped by others, however when the results are published or communicated publicly, they couldn't be scooped without being cited, following their date of publication and occurrence (papers or posters). Face to face discussions could identify some scooped results if any;  people working in the same field are familiar with relevant results, scientific literature and  research topics.  However  it could be more convenient that proceedings should be indexed in the known databases same as journals to ovoid any scooping attempts.

Fairouz:  This type of 'scientist/academic' is not uncommon, but I don't pay much attention to them. For me, attending conferences is about meeting fellow researchers from a range of backgrounds and disciplines, and you will always get a mixture of the good, the bad & the ugly  ;-)

Dear @Nicholas, I do bring your paper to this thread. You have given good remarks what the conferences are. "Conferences form a major part of our professional and continuing education practices. They allow us to meet and share information, and stimulate collaboration..."

Article Rethinking poster presentations at large-scale scientific me...

Every time I attend academic conferences as a presenter.  Reasons I attend academic conferences divided in 2 phases:

1) Reasons attending before my PhD completion:

2) Reasons attending after PhD completion:

Some more related threads with so many good answers and reasons why to attend the conferences.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Are_academics_attending_conferences_just_for_the_sake_of_presenting_papers_or_are_they_looking_for_a_plausible_solution_to_their_research

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_encourage_researchers_to_participate_in_an_international_conference

https://www.researchgate.net/post/National_or_International_Conferences

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Should_we_question_the_credibility_of_international_conferences

Thanks Han Pin Fung, for a detailed answer.  Thanks Ljubomir, for bringing the threads on participation in conferences.  

A few months ago (June, 2015), I attended a national conference at a nearby Polytechnic, just 5 km from my college.  I presented 2 papers on music mnemonics to facilitate learning Biology.  It was quite a good experience.  I was questioned on many types of mnemonics (first letter, keyword etc) that students learning technical subjects could use to help them remember equations etc.  My papers were scanned using Viper, and from then on, I have been using Viper to scan my own writings.  Viper allows a 30% similarity index, can someone let me know concerning TURNITIN?  Is it also 30%?

(I am placing a link to and early conference paper that I managed to find and upload on RG.  It should be of some interest to folks who like music.)

Conference Paper MUSIC PREFERENCES OF MALAYSIAN STUDENTS AND NATIONAL INTEGRATION

Not sure how we got on to plagiarism but:

'The American Psychological Association (APA) states that academic writing should contain no more than 20% quoted material. However, instructors are permitted to indicate that a lower percentage is required for an assignment. An originality report with a score higher than 20% may be cause for concern about the originality of content and should be thoroughly reviewed by both student and instructor for potential plagiarism.'

Although we check the work of others (students, submitted articles etc.) for plagiarism, why do people check their own work - surely we know if we have plagiarised another persons work, and what constitutes this?

Turnitin state: "These indices do not reflect Turnitin’s assessment of whether a paper has or has not been plagiarized. Originality Reports are simply a tool to help an instructor find sources that contain text similar to submitted papers. The decision to deem any work plagiarized must be made carefully, and only after in depth examination of both the submitted paper and suspect sources in accordance with the standards of the class and institution where the paper was submitted." see attached pdf.

If we are well-read in our field and competent researchers, then I fail to see any reason to check our own work. Others however are not so familiar with our abilities and practices, so these tools are very useful to get an idea of the trustworthiness of their papers.

http://www.gcu.edu/Academics/Academic-Integrity/About-Turnitin/Turnitin-FAQs.php

Thanks Nicholas.  I haven't plagiarized others.  But I have several papers on music mnemonics, and cite myself besides adding new info.  My concern is self-plagiarism.  It was a relief when I moved to research other topics in science education.

Your question is very interesting. I believe that the researcher participates in the conference to make known the work more quickly and create a network with other scholars of the same area.

 I think the question is very interesting. I also think an universal, unique answer is not possible. Each researcher has his or her objectives and, perhaps, restrictions.

For me, in principal, a conference is useful for exchanging useful ideas about our studies. However, I have to admit that sometimes the absenteeism makes me very skeptical about the future of some conferences; it is very hard to exchange ideas with somebody who is not there.... And this is also the case for poster presentations, at least how they are organized as a general case... 

Networking and the exchange of cultural values can be also good reasons for attending conferences. 

Regarding publication, I always considered as a 'bonus': you can have an option to publish your work. Personally, I rarely attend conferences that imply mandatory publication and I feel that publishing my work in a such manner means a lost work (because it is very hard to re-launch a study over and over again...). However, some conferences has this requirements...

It just so happens I have a book that looks at this and related questions around conferences coming out later this year from Palgrave Macmillan

Donald:  this is great news.  There is very little written about conferences, conference learning, communication, costs, efficacy, ROI, funding etc.  I am also doing a book for Springer on poster presentation (not so much compilation, as to the underlying theories of presentation objectives, methods, history etc.). I give some fairly in-depth coverage of the place of poster presentations at conferences, and am also thinking about 'conference learning' in terms of communities of practice.  Give me an email if you want to talk further: nrowe[at]ulapland.fi. 

Nicholas. I have a section on poster presentations!

Don't tell me someone else on the planet has noticed how important these are ....  Let me know what sort of things you are looking at (probably by email so I don't fill someone else's thread with over-enthusiastic conference talk). Perhaps we can share/collaborate   ;-)

 Lets take this offline...

Attending conferences is an opportunity to build my networking with other professionals in my field and share ideas on recent advances and technological breakthroughs in my field of study. It is an opportunity to expand my knowledge and enhance performance in achieving institutional goals. 

Take care about predatory conferences! Here are some criteria for identifying predatory conferences, proposed by J. Beall!

https://scholarlyoa.com/2016/06/23/proposed-criteria-for-identifying-predatory-conferences/

First reason is to sharpen my skills through learning new ideas and approaches to make me more focused, effective and efficient at my work. Second reason, is to network and meet face-to-face with like-minded experts and influencers in my area of interest.

Creation of collaborative research to perform analysis of cross-cultural assessments on applied research topics.

First benefit, I found, was meeting interesting people. Second benefit was to advance research ideas. In the old days it was the best method to get a new job.

For these reasons I still like to attend.

Rafael -  you started this thread some time back & provided a link to a poll (which still seems to be open). Do you have any results - have you done anything with the data?

I have also collected data on conference attendance, so it would be good to talk if you are still interested in the topic. Message me on RG?

Personally, scientific conferences is a promotion or a media tour of the point of calling the conference material tends to earn more than what happened to him is a scientific weight of academic evidence is that the most influential researchers tend to rely on published research journals sober significantly compared to research conferences.

Therefore, most of the conference participants either be seeking for relationships or who are not able to publish their ideas magazines sober.

Do not forget socializing. Conferences are been attended by different people, you meet different cultures... 

I agree to all the answers given here. In my case it is part of my job to disseminate the result of my research and to seek for further improvement in the process by listening to comments and suggestions from other researchers. Travel and certificates are just bonus incentives to it.

Very interesting points here, which have been reflected by my own investigations into this and other conference related matters. You may be interested in my book,  "Academic conferences as a neoliberal commodity", which will be published in January 2017; and covers this and other related matters, through a neoliberal lens.

Based on the results of our research, the top three factors which influence the attendance of the members of International Association of Marine and Aquatic Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC) to its annual conferences were: 1. Professional and social networking opportunities, 2. Educational opportunities, and 3. Travelability (time and affordability of the conference). Full results will be published soon.

Dear Rafael,

I attend conferences for (i) gathering new ideas and emerging areas of research in my field of specialization, (ii)  sharing my research findings with peer group of scientists and collecting their feedback for improvement, (iii) networking with scientists from other institutions/organizations, and (iv) visiting other institutions & travelling to other places.

The feedback on research methodology and findings received from the conferences help me immensely in preparation of manuscripts and their subsequent publication in good journals.

Lastly, I attend conferences to utilize the fund under travel grant sanctioned for my research project.  

Also, in some universities/institutes count 'attending conferences', 'present papers in  professional conferences', or 'bring students to present posters in conferences' towards tenure, if one is a tenure-track professor.

Although, I am a PhD student and my supervisor did not support me but I like to attend to gain knowledge that I can not gain it from classes plus improve myself and know all people in my field

@ Nermeen,

It is good for students to attend conferences and present their researches  through posters or oral presentations.

If your advisor does not have enough funding to support you, several things you can do (these are from my personal experiences):

1. Try to apply for travel funding from your university. Usually the travel founding does not cover the whole conference expense, but once you obtain the founding, your advisor might be willing to cover the rest.

2. Some conferences also provide 'student travel grants' for applying. However, it is based on competition. Students send in their research results, and the organization pick a few bests to receive the grants. Students receive the grants will need to present their research in the conference.

3. To be a volunteer for the conference. I had applied for volunteering work for a few conferences. In return, my registration fees were waivered, sometimes free room was provided (shared with other 3 volunteers), a free ticket for a special dinner reception. After all these free stuff, I only needed to pay for transportation expense.

Simply identify the research, new ideas and the exchange of ideas as well as get acquainted with scientists and experts.

There are several reasons, but I think tha the main ones are: Networking; socializing; to have the opportunity to listen and read about new research lines, tendences, etc; to have parallel project meetings during congress; planning new projects; to visit other institutions and participate in technical excursions.  

I do hardly wait for the next year conferences to attend. I will socialize, share, learn, educate, enjoy...! As I am getting older, Conferences become my preferable type of scientific meetings.

Good for you Ljubomir, because there is always somebody on these forums who does not see fun even in conferences and down votes people for speaking up. I will follow your track on next year conferences as well. There are so many new things around that encourages us to move away from our seats at the University for couple of days and come back with more energy and topics.

I agree with José. Some conferences have a strategic importance. When a researcher presents his paper at good conference achieves various advantages  (e.g., comparison with other colleagues, opportunity to exchange opinions, good opportunity to publish, opportunity to create network...etc.)

Sometimes we are so engrossed in our own cocoon of domain, we don't even allow alternate thought-process in our mind regarding our study. When we meet external brilliance, either from keynote speakers or from fellow researchers, we start to think differently, in fact more dimensions are added in our ongoing projects. Again if its international in true sense and your paper or even idea makes sense to others then their could be collaborative opportunities as well. Moreover I feel its more to see your current position in the world of research (are you making sense with your ideas!!).

Obviously a very nice platform to socialize with some breliant minds in your field. It also provide a synergy which works as the building point for intuitions

Conference provides you an opportunity to meet professionals in the field of your study. It provides you an opportunity to integrate your ideas with others. Besides it very good for acedamic networking. 

And last it is full of fun.... 

Diversity of thinking brings about creative ideas and possible new venues to enrich current research or possible future research. Nowadays is the time for collaboration in research, conferences open such doors.

Academic conference is very important for many reasons. Networking for funding applications, for collaborative research and publications, exchange of ideas and counselling or mentoring from senior researchers in your discipline. Feedbacks from colleagues can help to facilitate the publication of each paper you presented in a conference.

I attend Conferences to keep me updated about the recent work and the frontier areas in my area of study, as well other areas which could be inter-linked to our present research studies. In addition, one meets new people which could result in a better visualization of your own work when presented before a 'peer group'. It also teaches that scientific pursuits work better if you are open minded, able to absorb new and innovative ideas, in the global context, since we are all interdependent on the work being pursued- like a 'global village', shunning a 'frog-in-the-well' approach.

Here are twelve reasons why you should attend academic conferences:

1. sharpen the saw/ideas, 2. meet experts face to face, 3. networking opportunities, 4. new tools, 5. learning in a new space, 6. break out of your comfort zone, 7. new tips and tactics, 8. greater focus, 9. the energy of like minded individuals, 10. the serendipity of the random workshop, 11. invest in yourself, and 12. have fun.

Good points Dilip and Howieda. I also see it as enjoying the vast creativity that human minds radiate whenever in groups reflecting an environment of harmony, peace, and the strong initiative to learn more for the sake of improving our communities at large.

I have not attended scientific conference recently, so I have lost a lot. There is no replacement for live word, colleagues, discussions...

Funding is the main problem in Serbia! 

Simply to get reaction of people on your work face to face and gather the latest information in science. Thanks

1-Improving myself.

2-To be collaborate with what happening no.

3-Knowing my educational level and develop it.

It is very important that we, the veteran generation, motivate the new generation of scientists to build their networks whenever they attend conferences. It is highly beneficial at least in getting acquainted with journal editors that usually attend conferences, and consequently learn how to publish abroad.

I attend Conferences to

1. Develop my presentation skills

2. Develop my papers or articles

3. Network with friends in the field or specialization

4. Update my knowledge etc

Find out about topical research in area of focus

 @Rafael Hernandez Barros started this topic in 2013, but I see no comments or replies by him. Has anyone done anything with this line of inquiry? I have a submitted paper on the topic, but would like to do more work on this area.

Get in touch if you are interested in perhaps collaborating ✒🎓

 Hi Nicholas

What you have in mind?

Regards

It's a great way to learn about the latest developments in your field. Over time, I have also come to realise it's a conducive venue to meet fellow academics, discuss latest trends and build collaborations. Hence, it is critical for academics to regularly attend conferences and scientific meets to further their careers. 

Best regards 

Hussin:

RHB seems to have collected 10 pages of responses to his question, and also had a survey which was live for a long period of time. That is a lot of data, and could be used to analyse the reasons for attendance, as expressed by this group of respondents.  My own paper draws on 2 surveys and also a series of interviews. It concludes that although we seem to get what we want from conferences (knowledge sharing, professional socialization/networking), the deeper 'needs' such as meaningful encounters, visibility, recognised outputs, productive collaborations, etc.) are not so reliable. When we balance this with the huge costs of conferences that I am beginning to reveal, we end up with a question of utility. Do conferences really achieve what we want them to?  Do we get a fair return for investment (money, time, effort etc.)?  

It would be interesting just to look at the reasons given by respondents to this thread, and see which are the most popular (with % rates, respondent demographics etc.), what concerns are raised, and what evidence there is to show that events meet our expectations and needs.

I was thinking that the large amount of data here could be put to productive use (once anonymised).  There are some really good questions on RG, but I feel that the potentially useful data gets lost to sight, once threads get too long/old. I just wondered if RHB (or anyone else) had done anything with the information that had been contributed  ;-)

Very good insight Nicholas, however one very important factor is the internalized cognitive sentiments and thoughts after the conference that researchers, presenters or others take with them. These are measured (hopefully) with qualitative research using for instance Focus Group approach. There is much more than just what people express on this thread or other ones.

Hussin:  These internalised values/benefits are indeed very important, and have traditionally been the value base that justified us attending conferences.  We are all different, our events are different, but to try to predict efficacy on a generalisable scale is a chaos-math challenge!  Because of this though, we have not addressed these fundamental questions (in any fields literature).

However, things like multi-million user bases, multi-billion $ annual expenditures, challengable assumptions about efficacy, communication, information management & capacity (all of which I have established in my own research) - these issues say that to establish sustainability & justify the levels of investment we make (not just monetary), then we have to ensure that conferences at least achieve their expressed objectives. Again, even this basic question has not been properly explored in the scientific literature. Many say that in the context of conferences, it is wrong to 'measure' value beyond the individual level. But I argue that it is irresponsible not to. If nothing else, it at least makes us try to get the best from our events. As an example of how un-remarked conferences have gone ... journal articles get impact factored, citation counted, treated as professional markers, and lauded for representing academic achievement. In fact, the annual production of conference outputs outnumber journal articles by 16-40% ... not many of us get promoted or recognised for this part of our practice though.

There is a lot more to be had from conferences, and this thread holds many insights as to what people want, and to some extent, what they get.

This old resource belongs here.

SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS

Contents, influence, value, availability...

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0002/000202/020249eo.pdf

Some people attending to publish paper and other to learn about new in science.

Also to travel and make new friends and see new countries.

Regards

Ljubomir: This is a good document. Although produced in 1962, a significant part is dedicated to information management, in particular how librarians can use conference outputs (or not) as a source of available information (passim). My own recent paper finds and analyses a persisting situation, within the same group ... 55 years later. Even the @30% publication conversion rates (p28) are unchanged in the present day, so we don't seem to have developed a great deal in the intervening years. Given our increased use of conferences (which multiplied exponentially only a few years after this report was produced), I feel it is appropriate we give proper attention to conferences.

I hope you will read my paper on posters, as it reflects today's conference scene. I guarantee you will find new information in it, which will challenge what we think conferences do, how they work, & what they are for.

Article Tracing the 'grey literature' of poster presentations: A map...