Scholarly conferences are a regular part of the academic life.

Whether big annual conferences run by scholarly associations, or smaller more focused conferences and workshops hosted in various institutions, academics attend conferences regularly. Or as often as possible given the travel funds available.

You are building relationships

Scholarly work is inherently collaborative. Not in the sense that it should all be co-authored, but in the sense that you develop your ideas in conversation with others.

These may be formal conversations. They may take place mostly in writing, even formal types of writing. But you do your best work in conversation.

The reason you give conference papers is to meet people and build relationships.

• Your paper will be better for the feedback you get from people you meet at the conference.
• Your discussions will likely spawn ideas for future work.
• You may end up collaborating more closely with one or more of these people at some point.
• People who hear your paper may be in a position to hire someone in the future. (Knowledge of “good candidates” is important when departments are writing the job description.)

Unless you are invited to give a plenary presentation, chances are you get about 15 minutes to present your research. Even the very experienced often rail against this ludicrously short time limit.

What can you do in 15 minutes?

Your goal is to meet the people in the room who you would like to have a longer conversation with.

There are plenty of opportunities to have that longer conversation.

• lunch
• dinner
• coffee
• the bar
• a walk around the conference grounds
• by e-mail after you return home
• by phone after you return home

The key to the presentation is to talk for 15 minutes on the parts of your research that are most interesting. Or, that you’d most like feedback on. Or, that most surprised you.

Not everyone is going to be comfortable speaking in the session.

Some people will want to read the longer version before making any comments. Some will be shy about coming up and introducing themselves. Others might not have anything to say right away, preferring to ponder things before making a contribution.

Have copies of the fuller paper available, and tell people you have them if they want them. Make sure your contact details are on the cover page. Get their contact details when they take it.

If you don’t have the fuller paper with you, or if you have other papers the audience might be interested in, invite members of the audience to give you their e-mail address so you can send this to them when you get home. Have a sheet of paper for this purpose, in case they don’t have business cards.

Have copies of your business card to give to people in case they want to get in touch later. If you don’t have a business card, get one. Ask if you are entitled to a university one. If not, have some printed with basic information about yourself: name, research area, contact details.

If you feel comfortable talking to new people over lunch, let people know where you will be eating lunch and invite them to join you.

After the conference is as important as in the conference

Make sure to follow up when you get home.

Send an e-mail thanking them for their interest and sending what you said you’d send. Remember you are building a relationship, so also ask what they are working on.

You can also keep the lunch/beer/whatever conversations going by e-mail or even start a blog to keep people in the loop about what you are working on.

After a couple of weeks, you could e-mail those who took a copy of the paper to ask if they have any comments. If one or two of these people seem particularly interested (and make useful comments), keep them in mind as people to review a later version that you plan to submit to a journal.

Enjoy the conference

Go to sessions that seem interesting. Find a way to engage with those people who seem interesting to you, even if that means getting an e-mail address so you can contact them with a better formulated question later.

If you are an introvert, make sure you take regular time alone so you have the energy to participate in sessions, receptions, etc. There is no requirement to spend every waking minute interacting with other people. Look after yourself.

Talking to people informally counts. Skipping a session to have a really interesting discussion over coffee with one other person is a good use of your time.