How to decide on attending a conference (or not)?
Time to time, we receive announcements of conferences. That includes a statement such as: "abstracts are due DATE XXX, join this wonderful meeting of the top of the community". Wordings may change, but the content is the same --as in real life clothes & cars may change, however the spirit stays the same.
Well, if you are interested in the content of the conference, you probably would like to consider attending, be it by writing to it, or by just examining.
Graduate students like conferences for only one thing: free food & drinks. (I know, that makes two, but still, the destination is the same: the stomach.) This is a neverending joke of phdcomics.com.
Let's come back to the serious question of whether to join a conference or not. Several times I have examined the announcement of a conference, to see "what it is all about". And I found out that many of the conferences I encounter are start-ups. Which means, the content of the conference is just a blur picture. And the result is strictly dependent on the cumulative chance of the attendants. It can be successful, with lots of good critics/comments to your work, or it can be a show-off where people are there solely for commercial marketing.
Therefore, it is very important that people do consider whether to START a new series of conferences or not. Because, the new conferences are sharing the supplies (papers, scientists) of the existing ones. And thus, the organizer should firstly, think of joining powers to an existing conference.
Take aerodynamics for example. There must be trillions of conferences on aerodynamics. So, assume I work on low reynolds number flows. Here's a bunch of questions that comes to my mind at first instant:
Can i see all of these conferences? (NO!)
Which one is best for me? (DUNNO)
What is the best way to find a conference where I can be in a real good network of scientists? (CHANCE!).
Unfortunately, the only advice from this short blog can be that the potential attendant should try to find out the detailed program (better the abstracts of submitted papers), the list of participants, and then see if it suits with his research or not.
A new conference might be a chance to take part in a new foundation, and I would highly encourage that attendance, if the topic is not a generic one, and if the conference is not a fax-copy of an existing one. If it's something totally new (e.g. "intergalactic travel accidents, how to avoid"), then it's a must to be there. Nobody would like to miss the chance to listen to Feynman's 1969 speech on micro machines.
Yeah, right. I finish here. Still not satisfied? Flip the coin!
Well, if you are interested in the content of the conference, you probably would like to consider attending, be it by writing to it, or by just examining.
Graduate students like conferences for only one thing: free food & drinks. (I know, that makes two, but still, the destination is the same: the stomach.) This is a neverending joke of phdcomics.com.
Let's come back to the serious question of whether to join a conference or not. Several times I have examined the announcement of a conference, to see "what it is all about". And I found out that many of the conferences I encounter are start-ups. Which means, the content of the conference is just a blur picture. And the result is strictly dependent on the cumulative chance of the attendants. It can be successful, with lots of good critics/comments to your work, or it can be a show-off where people are there solely for commercial marketing.
Therefore, it is very important that people do consider whether to START a new series of conferences or not. Because, the new conferences are sharing the supplies (papers, scientists) of the existing ones. And thus, the organizer should firstly, think of joining powers to an existing conference.
Take aerodynamics for example. There must be trillions of conferences on aerodynamics. So, assume I work on low reynolds number flows. Here's a bunch of questions that comes to my mind at first instant:
Can i see all of these conferences? (NO!)
Which one is best for me? (DUNNO)
What is the best way to find a conference where I can be in a real good network of scientists? (CHANCE!).
Unfortunately, the only advice from this short blog can be that the potential attendant should try to find out the detailed program (better the abstracts of submitted papers), the list of participants, and then see if it suits with his research or not.
A new conference might be a chance to take part in a new foundation, and I would highly encourage that attendance, if the topic is not a generic one, and if the conference is not a fax-copy of an existing one. If it's something totally new (e.g. "intergalactic travel accidents, how to avoid"), then it's a must to be there. Nobody would like to miss the chance to listen to Feynman's 1969 speech on micro machines.
Yeah, right. I finish here. Still not satisfied? Flip the coin!
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