How Can I Make a Conference Most Useful to Me?

Despite the potential benefits of a conference, a few attendees will feel that the conference was a wasteful or painful experience. As one of the students confesses, “That everyone seemed to squint at my nametag and ostentatiously move on was bad enough; worse was the knowledge that, except for a meal at a wonderful restaurant and an hour perusing the products of university presses, I was lonely and bored, unable to sit through even one panel.” Smaller and more informal conferences might fit you better at the beginning as there students are less likely to feel alienated or bored than they might at larger conferences, such as the student describes.

In fact, most of the respondents to the survey noted that conferences are “conducive to networking,” “student-friendly,” have a “personal and unique feel,” and encourage a “closeness of relationships among members.” Still, first-time conference attendees may feel intimidated by the prospect of networking and meeting others. The following tips on conference attendance may help you find a comfortable interpersonal niche at conferences.

• Prepare yourself in advance. Is there someone you would like to meet at a conference? Send them an e-mail a few weeks in advance to ask about an upcoming publication or exchange research ideas; then ask whether they might be interested in meeting you at the conference. Alternatively, prepare a question that you will ask an admired person if you should happen to run into them at the airport or in an elevator. If you have a good question in mind when you see the person, you will be less tongue-tied and more likely to approach him or her and introduce yourself. In addition, make sure you have prepared a thirty-second spiel about yourself and your research, to provide ready-made conversational material for anyone you meet.

• Stay at the conference hotel. While it is less expensive – and perhaps less socially threatening – to stay with a friend who lives several miles away from the conference, this decision will result in more time with your friend and less time with conference attendees. Being at the conference hotel allows you to: (1) pop up to your room to catch your breath between rounds of social and academic activity, (2) spontaneously accept invitations to extra-conference social activities, and (3) meet new people in the hotel’s elevator, lobby, bar, or gym.

• Act like a host. At a social gathering, the host is responsible for keeping the guests interested and engaged with other people. Acting like a host will take your mind from yourself and your anxiety, and will help you interact with other people more naturally. Be as socially generous as possible. It almost never ‘costs’ anything to invite someone along, bring them into a conversation, introduce them to a colleague, connect them to someone of common interests, etc., and these things a) are always remembered, and b) go around and come around.

• Be kind. If you are acting like a host, you will be friendly to everyone you meet. Try to extend this principle to people you dislike. Many neophyte conference attendees have committed the capital error of loudly criticizing an individual or his research, only to discover that a bystander is the person’s student or colleague.

 By attending conferences, students and new professionals have the opportunity to interact with environments that are rigorous and fun, scholarly and social. We hope these guidelines help you get more out of conferences.

Ex. 1. Answer the questions.

1. Have you ever taken part in a conference? What kind of experience did you have?
2. Do you feel comfortable speaking in front of a large audience? Should all people possess this skill? What can we do to develop it?
3. What kind of a thirty-second spiel can you prepare about yourself?
4. If you happen to be a fellow-student of the person whose research someone loudly criticizes in the conference lobbies, what will be your reaction?

LANGUAGE TRAINING