What not to do at conferences
What I learned from a year of six conferences
This year, I ate thirty pastel de natas in Portugal, saw wild baby sea lions in San Diego, and enjoyed excellent views of Mount Rainier from the University of Washington – all while traveling for research conferences. Conferences are some of my favorite grad school activities. However, they can also be exhausting, confusing, intimidating, logistically complicated, and (depending on your funding situation) expensive. Here’s a list of the mistakes I’ve made – and new strategies I’ve developed over the last year for getting the most out of conferences.
Mistake 1: Booking the absolute dirt-cheapest flights and hotels*
*at the expense of my sleep and sanity
At the beginning of August, I took a red-eye flight to Portugal for a conference because it was thirty dollars cheaper. When I landed, I checked into a hostel, sharing a room (and a singular shower!) with four rowdy college students and an older woman who snored like an earthquake.
By the next morning, I’d had about four hours of sleep across two nights. I was also supposed to present a thirty-minute talk at nine.
I’d been nervous about this particular talk for weeks. The main topic of the conference was computational complexity, an area of math in which I’m not an expert. I was giving the very first talk of the day, and the expectations would be high: the paper we had submitted won a conference award. My laptop contained six separate drafts of my slides.
Worrying that I’d pass out from sleep deprivation halfway through the talk didn’t help my nerves.
In the end, the talk went well – thanks in part to the conference’s free espresso machine. But in the future, I’ll be prioritizing sleep and comfort during travel, even if my travel fund takes a bigger hit. After all, if I’m too tired or stressed to enjoy a conference, what’s the point in going?
Mistake 2: Not giving practice talks to real audiences
Everyone has presenting quirks. Some people talk too quietly. Some people stare at their notes. This year, I discovered my quirk: in front of audiences, I get nervous and speak more quickly. As a result, the forty-five minute talk I’ve prepared magically becomes thirty-five minutes. Occasionally, an audience member will raise their hand: “Sorry, I didn’t catch that. Could you go back to the previous slide?”
I used to practice my talks by myself (or maybe give them to my cat). But this summer, I learned that presenting to a small group of friends is much more effective for me. Getting practice with a real audience – even if that audience is my officemate, my closest grad school friend, and my Mom over FaceTime – helps me overcome stage fright. It also helps me get more accurate time stamps, so that I can make my talk longer if necessary.
Mistake 3: Trying to go to every single talk
In July, I went to a big annual conference in Seattle devoted to algebraic combinatorics, my specialty within math. Algebraic combinatorics is quite niche, even among mathematicians. Going to an algebraic combinatorics conference feels like going to an all-vegetarian restaurant: suddenly, everything on the menu is something I can eat.
Of course, I was excited – and I tried to go to every talk the conference offered. The problem that quickly arose? t’s exhausting to sit in an audience and listen to talks for hours on end. My brain was oversaturated with information. My note-taking hand started aching. Despite my best intentions, I started daydreaming about what I would have for dinner.
By the fifth or sixth talk each day, I was invariably losing the ability to pay attention. This was a real shame if the seventh talk was the one I was most interested in! It also meant I usually didn’t have enough social battery left for group dinners or excursions.
Now, I go into conferences expecting to attend about 60% of the talks, and prioritizing accordingly. Setting a more reasonable expectation for myself helps me get more out of the talks I do attend.
Mistake 4: Being too shy to ask questions!
I can’t count how many times I’ve loved a presentation, thought of specific questions for the presenter, but then been too shy to introduce myself. I’ll tell myself that my question is too basic, or that they’re too busy talking to other audience members.
I’ve learned to overcome this shyness by setting specific goals in advance. For instance: ‘I will have a conversation with at least one professor I don’t know.’ ‘I want to chat with this specific person about their new paper.’ ‘I want to ask two questions today, even if they’re simple.’ I tell myself that the more I put myself out there, the easier it will be the next time. So far, this has proven true.
Two of my best research projects have stemmed from presentations that piqued my curiosity, and conversations with the presenter that followed. Besides, even if my questions turn out to be ‘basic,’ people usually love talking more about their work!
I’ve learned a lot this year about how to get the most out of conferences: make healthy, comfortable travel plans, give practice talks to friendly audiences, set reasonable expectations for how many talks I’ll attend, and talk to strangers – even if those strangers are famous professors. Plus, enjoy the opportunity to travel to interesting new places. I’m now planning for an exciting new year of travel (including a possible trip to Banff!) and keeping all these lessons in mind.
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