Preparing for Academic Conferences: Tips for New Grad Students

As I’m getting ready to fly to London to present a paper at a conference I thought it might be helpful to share my advice and tips for how I prepare for a conference. I don’t have a ton of conference experience, so some of this will probably be pretty basic if you’ve already attended a lot of conferences, but if you’re new to grad school and are facing your first conference I hope some of the tips below will make you feel a little less intimidated. I’ve also done a corresponding video on this topic on my YouTube channel if you want to check that out as well.

1. Apply for everything, as many conferences as you can afford

Attending conferences can be really expensive, even if you live in or near a major city/university. Between conference tickets, membership fees, travel costs, and other miscellaneous expenses, conferences can add up quickly. But ideally, grad students are expected to attend at least one major national/international conference a year. This is probably my biggest regret of my grad school experience. I spent too much time thinking my work wasn’t good enough so I didn’t apply. Don’t do what I did. Apply anyway. If you can afford the larger conferences, apply to those. If there are smaller regional/local conferences that are less expense, definitely apply to those. Basically, apply to anything and everything you can afford. Let the conference committee decide if you’re work fits or not. Just apply.

2. Stay at the conference hotel if possible. 

If not, stay as close by as possible. Keep in mind the best hotel deal might cost you more time and/or money if it’s far from the venue. You could find a great deal on a hotel that’s further away but then have to deal with the expense of a rental car or other transit cost, but the stress of navigating around a city or area you might not be familiar with. That being said, if you have a friend or family member in area that you can stay with, transit costs could end up being cheaper than a hotel close by, so make sure you consider all your options. Now, if you get to travel abroad for an international conference, my advice changes slightly. Obviously you want to save as much money as possible, but for a lot of grad students, traveling abroad for a conference could be your one chance for several years to be able to travel internationally. So if you want to splurge and treat yourself a little, I say go for it, as long as it’s still within your budget. I’m getting read to fly to London for a conference and while I’m keeping within my budget, I definitely gave myself a pretty decent budget. I’m staying for 2 full weeks, not just a long weekend for the conference. Partly because it’s my favorite place and I love visiting but also because there are a number of exhibitions I want to see for my research. So if you can turn the conference trip into a slightly longer research trip, or just enjoy a few free days in a cool new city, go for it.

3. Follow the conference organization on all their socials. 

Read their blog, read up on previous conference programs/proceedings so you can get a sense of the type of work that’s talked about and who shows up. As grad students we all know the importance of doing a bit of homework and research ahead of time and conferences are no exception. This can be great for interdisciplinary conferences where you might not know what the usual topics are or what kind of scholars tend to attend. It can also be helpful to do this before you apply if you’re trying to figure out if your research would be a good fit or if you need to adjust it slightly to fit (this happens to me a lot as a fashion scholar in an English department). Another bonus is if you start following their socials you might be able to start seeing who will be attending your specific conference and start talking to some people online. More on that later.

4. Prepare and test run your outfit. 

Don’t just pick it out, wear it out for a whole day to make sure you’ll be comfortable. Same goes for shoes. It’s not enough to just know what you’ll wear. You have to wear it to know you’ll be comfortable in it. Some outfits start out fine and then about half way through the day the collar is too tight, or the skirt keeps slipping up, or the shoes have given you blisters and you can hardly walk properly. This could be a nightmare scenario, especially if you’re slated to present at the end of the day. So even if you don’t take clothing and what you wear seriously, even if you always dress for comfort, test run your outfit anyway, unless it’s one you wear practically every day, test it out. And don’t just wear it for a few minutes in front of the mirror, wear it all day and move around in it to see how it will wear long term. If you’re conference is more than one day, you might want to do this for each outfit you’ll wear, but it’s especially important for what you’ll wear the day you present, that’s when you want to be the most comfortable and confident.

5. Read up on your program once you get a copy. 

First you want to make sure you’re name is spelled right and it’s the correct paper title. But you also want to see who will be there and what other topics are being covered. This goes back to tip #3 and looking people up on social media. If you can start putting names and faces together in your mind before the conference and start thinking about which panels you want to attend, it will give you even more to look forward to as the conference approaches and keep the nerves at bay.

6. Know your paper length and time limits

Typically conference papers are 8-10 pages (2,000-2,5000 words) and you usually have about 15 minutes to speak, with 5 minutes for questions, which may come immediately after your presentation or at the end of the panel (after all presenters on the panel give their papers). These limits are usually strictly enforced. No one wants to be cut off (and no panel chair wants to be put in the position where they have to cut people off) so just save everyone the stress and stay within the limits. It’s better to be slightly under your time, than over it. So learn what the limits for your specific conference and then stick to that. A little tip from my acting days, you tend to speak faster when you’re nervous. So if when you’re practicing you’re clocking in at 15 minutes, you’ll probably be closer to 14 minutes when you actually present. And that’s a good place to be. I usually try to get myself to a place where I’m clocking in around 14 minutes so that I have an extra 60 seconds cushion if I want to ad lib something. But if you’re not a confident public speaker, don’t attempt to ad stuff in on the fly. Stick to your notes. Make things easy on yourself. Trust me.

7. Finish your paper before you travel (if you can). 

You want to enjoy the panels, not miss half because you’re still finishing your paper. I’ve heard stories of people still writing their paper on the plane or in the hotel the night before the conference. Don’t do that. Obviously we’re all busy and time runs away with us as we’re chasing other deadlines. At the time of writing this, my presentation is still about 2 weeks away. My paper isn’t done. But it will be, even if I have to stay up the night before my flight to finish it. Thankfully I also have a day and a half after I land before my conference starts, but I want to use that time to adjust to the time difference and relax. With a week and a half until I fly I’m about 25% done with my paper and feeling confident I’ll finish it this week. You really want to have your paper done and not have the stress of finishing it hanging over you so that you can enjoy the conference to the fullest. So when you get your acceptance, look at your calendar and make a plan for when you want to get things done so that they don’t conflict with your other deadlines. Once you have more experience with conferences, putting things off to the last minute becomes a little easier to manage, but no one I know actually enjoyed writing their conference paper on the airplane or in the hotel the night before. So avoid that situation at all costs.

8. Figure out your schedule. 

Know when you present and choose which panels you will attend. Know when the breaks and meals are. Pack water and snacks, these are usually provided but better to be safe than hungry or dehydrated, especially right before you present. I get a nervous stomach and my appetite pretty much disappears in the few hours before I have to speak. So I’ll probably eat breakfast in my hotel room but then skip the lunch, or just not eat that much, since I present right after the lunch break. Once my panel is done I’ll probably be hungry but I’m not sure what kind of snacks will be available or if I’ll have time to run to the room where refreshments are kept. So having a bottle of water and a snack in my bag to eat quickly before the next panel is a good thing. Conference days can go by in a blur, there are usually multiple panels going on at once. The conference I’m attending soon is only two panels at a time, but I’ve been to conferences with four panels running concurrently. This leads to some hard choices. There could be a paper in each panel that sounds good, but typically you attend one panel at a time, you don’t leave a panel after one presentation to go attend a paper in a second panel. It’s always felt like an unwritten etiquette rule that you don’t panel hop. So choose the panel that has the most papers that sound interesting and stick to that plan. I mark my program with all the panels I plan to attend so that as each panel ends I know where I need to go for the next one. Also, you don’t have to attend every panel. If there’s one or two that don’t sound interesting, it’s ok to give yourself a break. This is especially true for conferences that are more than 2 days. I find that 2 days is my max for going full out, by that 3^rd day I start wanting to skip sessions and take more breaks. Know your body and read the signs it’s telling you. If you need to take a break that’s fine. This definitely applies to anyone who, like me, deals with any kind of chronic illness that makes it harder to cope with long days of constant activity. Pace yourself so you last for the whole conference and don’t burn out by the last day.

9. Give yourself time right before your panel, this might mean skipping a panel if you have to. 

This is definitely a tip for anyone who gets really nervous with public speaking. Run through your slides/notes one more time. Breathe. Check your hair, lipstick, mascara, etc (if you wear makeup). Go to the bathroom if needed. Try to be relaxed. Don’t engage in negative self-talk. Your paper wouldn’t have been accepted if there wasn’t genuine interest in your work. Conferences are great places to share your work and have people ask questions and give feedback. I always try to create the best presentation I can, but I don’t aim for perfection. I expect people to give me feedback and ask questions about things I hadn’t considered. Hopefully (and usually) people will be kind with their criticism and feedback. I have heard stories about people having their presentation rudely picked apart, but I’ve always felt that says more about the person doing the critiquing than it does the scholar’s work being criticized. So don’t worry about that, and it usually doesn’t happen anyway. I’ve always gotten really great (and very helpful) feedback on my presentations, even the ones that I felt were horrible. So just breathe, go through your notes, remind yourself that you’ve done the research and you know what you’re talking about. You don’t want the nerves to get the better of you, so whatever you need to do to stay calm and focused, do that.

10. Double check all your tech. 

Back it up in multiple places. Bring adapters for your laptop. Tech is usually provided but it’s good to have all your bases covered. The last thing you want is to have a problem with your presentation because you can’t get your tech to work. Even if the conference says that computers will be provided, I always bring mine. I also always bring adapters to connect it to the projector. Additionally I have the presentation backed up to a thumb drive to use on the provided computer and saved to a cloud service or in my email so I can get it from online if I need to. No matter what happens, I always have it saved. I also have hard copy print outs of my powerpoint presentation and my notes, so that even if tech completely fails me and I can’t show my visual presentation, I can still present my paper and share my work. 

11. Network! 

Get some business cards made ahead of time (I love the ones by Moo.com by the way). Don’t be afraid to talk to people. Everyone expects to chat with strangers at conferences. This is where reading the program and doing some homework ahead of time can help you. Start conversations with people on Twitter or other socials so you’ve already established communication before the conference. Basically, get in there and get to know people. I’ve made some great friends at conferences. This is especially important if you do alternative or interdisciplinary work. As I mentioned above, I’m a fashion scholar in an English department. No one else in my program does fashion related research. But I have met a few other fashion/English/rhetoric scholars at conferences and online. So conferences can be a great way to meet other scholars that do your kind of research and those connections can prove invaluable as your start working on your major research project or go on the job market. They can be valuable resources for research materials, job info, etc. No matter what point in your degree you’re at, just starting, about to apply to the next degree, or applying for jobs, networking and making connections with others in your field is crucial. I’ll be honest, I do struggle with this, I’m naturally shy and prefer hanging out in quiet corners than being in the middle of things. But I make myself get over my fears and get in there and talk to people when I attend a conference or other academic event.

12. Have fun! 

Attend all the social events, go to as many panels as possible, make the most of your experience. Whether it’s a casual grad student focused regional conference or a major international conference with all the “most important people” in your field, enjoy yourself and soak it all up. Meet new people. Engage with new ideas. Ask a million questions. Conferences are so much fun if you let yourself enjoy it. You meet amazing people and listen to fascinating research. I always come away feeling a bit exhausted but also so ready to dive into my work.

What are your conference tips or experiences? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. 

xo

Andrea