I attended my first national Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications conference last week in Denver. Here are 15 practical things I learned at conference:
1. Do not print the huge poster. I followed the required size (4×8) and felt like an amateur idiot. In the future, I’ll stick with something more reasonable (4×6).
2. Stay at the conference hotel. Your friends will give you grief for “being rich,” but you’ll be comfortable and near your room at all times.
3. Bring snacks. You’ll be busy and vending machines are expensive (see last item; spend your money on the hotel). Pack some granola bars or crackers in your bag. Bring a water bottle.
4. Stay off of your phone. We received this good advice (read: warning) before we left for conference, but I was amazed at the number of people I saw on their phones during sessions. I even saw one woman talking on her cell phone for about 20 minutes of a poster presentation.
5. Bring push pins if you have a poster presentation. I had a box and ended up helping many others who were unprepared.
6. Wear your name tag. You’ll meet about a million people, so it’s important for them to remember who you are and vice versa.
7. Bring business cards. I didn’t have any, which made networking difficult. I ended up having to write down a ton of names and e-mail addresses.
8. Dress for the job you want. I was shocked by some of the graduate students and faculty members I saw who were not dressed professionally. Remember that networking is a huge portion of the conference’s purpose. Dress up from arrival to departure (yes, even on the plane).
9. Bring copies of your paper. I didn’t plan ahead for this. However, my brilliant adviser remembered to bring a small stack. We distributed them all.
10. Get ready to drink coffee. I don’t know what it is about conference, but everyone wants to meet up or get to know you over a cup of Joe. I think I’ll avoid coffee for about a week before my next academic conference.
11. Attend sessions. A lot of grad students I know went to conference, presented their research and then left. I attended many sessions. For each session I attended, I came away with at least one research idea.
12. Practice, practice, practice. For whatever reason I was really nervous for my presentation. Because of this, I relied too heavily on my notes. I fear this made my presentation boring. My advice is to practice repeatedly in advance. If you think you’ve practiced enough, practice one more time, just because you can.
13. Keep an idea file. Because you will get so many research ideas at conference, it’s important for you to have a way to organize them. Put them all in the same notebook or clip file. Make your three-year research plan as soon as possible. Where do your new ideas fit into your plan?
14. Gather swag. One of the funnest things about conference is free stuff! Gather handouts, free books, pens, notepads… free stuff is good.
15. Embrace nerdom. Academic conference is one of the few places in the world that you can sit and debate (while drinking coffee, of course) about the intricacies of sampling or methodology. Take advantage of being surrounded by literally the most intelligent people in the world. Learn from them while you can.
Let’s Talk Nerdy!
What conference advice do you have to get the most out of the time?
Real Nerds Read!
For more information about how to make the most of conference attendance, read:
