{"id":2657,"date":"2015-02-09T08:21:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T02:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/?p=2657"},"modified":"2018-05-24T16:59:09","modified_gmt":"2018-05-24T11:29:09","slug":"how-to-recognize-good-academic-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/how-to-recognize-good-academic-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Recognize a Good Academic Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Location<\/h2>\n<p>Just as in real estate, where the conference is being held can carry more weight than the content being presented:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 10px\">Too exotic could be tough to get approved\u2014Bora Bora, really?<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 10px\">A location with too many local attractions could indicate weak content as organizers count on the distractions to make up for a limited agenda.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Shorter is Better<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/how-to-get-approval-to-attend-an-academic-conference\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Annual academic conferences<\/a> in particular face the challenge of having so many potential presenters that the event can go on\u00a0for several days:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 10px\">International conferences may be longer to justify the extended travel time<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 10px\">Content can be easily managed through parallel tracks with post-conference availability of presentation materials for missed sessions.<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 10px\">Short session times should indicate focused presentations<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 10px\">General sessions should be plenary and keynote only<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Proficient Use of Technology<\/h2>\n<p>With parallel tracks, delegates will be unable to attend every session. A good academic conference manages technology to facilitate both top quality presentations and ease of availability of papers, PowerPoint presentations, etc. Proficient organizers should be able to make all the materials available at check-in or, in the face of some unorganized presenters, shortly after the conference ends.<\/p>\n<h2>Look for Danger Signs of Information Overload<\/h2>\n<p>If every lunch and\/or dinner is sponsored with an obligatory presentation or \u201cworking session,\u201d that\u2019s a sign that the conference organizers have opted for quantity over quality:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 10px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/using-visual-aids-in-research-presentation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Papers and presentations<\/a> are usually taken home and read later, unless a delegate has specific questions for a presenter.<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 10px\">Delegates are there to meet people and exchange ideas, not to be crammed for the maximum number of presentations.<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 10px\">A good conference offers\u00a0lots of networking opportunities. Even in this world of web-conferencing technology and the ubiquitous availability of Skype, productive collaboration can still depend on face-to-face interaction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Remember What You\u2019re Looking to Achieve at the Event<\/h2>\n<p>The best conferences never lose sight of the fact that it\u2019s all about the delegates. If you have clear objectives to be achieved, and you sought budgetary approval to attend the academic conference on the basis of those objectives, don\u2019t compromise:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 10px\">Staying current in your field\u2014if you\u2019re area of research is fairly dynamic, look for the cutting-edge sessions from field leaders.<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 10px\">Networking with colleagues\u2014collaborative sessions rather than &#8220;sage on the stage&#8221; presentations would be helpful here. If those aren\u2019t available, make sure there are enough offline opportunities for informal meetings.<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 10px\">Find potential research collaborators\u2014have your target list prepared in advance. Conference organizers aren\u2019t always willing to share delegate lists in advance, but if the right topics and presenters are on the agenda, it\u2019s likely that at least some of your list will be there.<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 10px\">Find potential <a href=\"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/guide-on-scholarly-research-funding\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">funding partners<\/a>\u2014conferences are either hosted or underwritten for visibility. Look for the hospitality suites or hosted lunches and dinners to see who\u2019s there to write some checks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If you don\u2019t find an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/academic-conferences-enhance-researchers-career\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">academic conference<\/a> that meets your needs, consider waiting until next year. Not wasting the budget dollars can work to your advantage, and at least your inbox won\u2019t fill-up while you\u2019re killing time at a second-rate conference. Just be careful that non-attendance this year doesn\u2019t lead to a presumption of non-attendance next year.<\/p>\n<div style=\"display:flex; gap:10px;justify-content:\" class=\"wps-pgfw-pdf-generate-icon__wrapper-frontend\">\n\t\t<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2657?action=genpdf&amp;id=2657\" class=\"pgfw-single-pdf-download-button\" ><img data-src=\"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-generator-for-wp\/admin\/src\/images\/PDF_Tray.svg\" title=\"Generate PDF\" style=\"width:auto; height:45px;\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\"><\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Location Just as in real estate, where the conference is being held can carry more&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1456,1534],"tags":[1501],"ppma_author":[1895],"class_list":["post-2657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-promoting-research","category-using-online-media","tag-networking-sharing"],"better_featured_image":null,"acf":{"faq_main_heading":"","faq_heading_one":"","faq_heading_two":"","faq_heading_three":"","faq_heading_four":"","faq_heading_five":"","faq_heading_six":"","faq_description_one":"","faq_description_two":"","faq_description_three":"","faq_description_four":"","faq_description_five":"","faq_description_six":""},"views":926,"single_webinar_page_date":null,"single_webinar_page_time":null,"session_agenda":null,"who_should_attend_this_session":null,"about_the_speaker_field":null,"co-webinar-sec":null,"co_webinar_sec_one":null,"speaker-name":null,"webinar-date":null,"webinar-time":null,"webinar-s-image":null,"custum_webinar_category":null,"authors":[{"term_id":1895,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"editor","display_name":"Enago Academy","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ef4bc47f3ceaa56f5eb3b26f9520fad298ba36ede4f86315997ffb45db37a1f?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Academy","first_name":"Editor","job_title":"","description":"Enago Academy, the knowledge arm of Enago, offers comprehensive and up-to-date resources on academic research and scholarly publishing to all levels of scholarly professionals: students, researchers, editors, publishers, and academic societies. It is also a popular platform for networking, allowing researchers to learn, share, and discuss their experiences within their network and community. The team, which comprises subject matter experts, academicians, trainers, and technical project managers, are passionate about helping researchers at all levels establish a successful career, both within and outside academia."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2657"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}