Preparing for the conference and conserving your energy

Conferences are an exciting opportunity to energize your scholarship and facilitate your professional development, but they can also be exhausting. Below are some tips on how to prepare for the conference and to make sure your energy levels remain high and positive throughout:

• YOU DO NOT NEED TO ATTEND EVERY PANEL AND LISTEN TO EVERY PAPER. In fact, most people would discourage it since you can easily burn yourself out. Look at the program ahead of time, pick out the papers, sessions, and events you’re most interested in, and make your own individual schedule which also builds in breaks.

• If there are specific individuals you’d like to make sure to see, email them ahead of time to arrange a meeting and include these in your schedule. You might ask if they’ll be at a reception and see if you can meet up there.

• Keep a stash of snacks in your pocket or bag. Lots of conferences will often have a well-stocked coffee/tea bar to help keep attendees caffeinated throughout, but solid food is not always a guarantee.

• Pace yourself. Remember that you don’t need to see everyone you know; there will be other opportunities to catch up with familiar faces on other occasions!

• Make an energy map to figure out what gives you energy and what drains you. Plan your conference accordingly so that the energizing conference aspects outweigh the draining ones.

• Try to be wary of taking up too much time and energy from someone else. You can always follow up in an email!

• Conferences don’t just need to be about scholarship or networking. They’re a great opportunity to visit a new city. Build in time for sightseeing if you want to and can!

What to wear

The expected dress code can vary depending on the conference or event. AIA/SCS, for instance, tends to be more formal, while the parties and receptions can be more casual and fun. (The WCC encourages costumes at its reception!) Generally speaking, most conferences run on business casual. Standard advice is “one step above whatever your standard teaching garb” is, if you are not actively on the job market; two steps above if you are on the job market.

A popular look for many is a blazer over a dress or over a shirt/blouse with pants or skirts. You might dress up more on a day you are interviewing or presenting and go more casual on the other days. Wear something that is professional but also makes you feel good. “Dress for the job you want,” but don’t wander too far from your natural style or comfort level.

General Advice

• Avoid wearing something that you’re prone to tug at or fiddle with. Similarly, avoid wearing brand-new shoes that can hurt or ‘noisy’ jewelry (e.g. clanky bracelets) that can distract.

• Pack for the location and season (e.g. heat and cold).

• You can be less formal for parties. Be sure to avoid extremes (e.g. sweats, athletic wear, cocktail, etc., unless there is a theme).

• Bring one extra outfit in case something gets stained/doesn’t fit or your flights get delayed and you get stuck an extra day.

• Wear your name tag.

Still want outfit options?

• Gender neutral: Dress pants, maybe a comfortable boot or dressier shoe, and a collared shirt. Throw on a vest or jacket. Whatever you decide, wear something that feels affirming, comfortable, and nice.

• For tops, dressy sweaters, blouses, and button-downs are good options. You can throw cardigans, vests, and blazers on top of those.

• Wrap dresses are convenient for minimizing how much you need to coordinate or pack.

• Slacks and skirts are typical professional bottoms.

• Most conference attendees avoid jeans, but darkwash jeans are increasingly more acceptable. Just avoid anything with rips, stains, and the like.

• If heels make you feel confident and awesome, go for them, but keep in mind there will be a lot of walking and standing.

• Boots are a great footwear option that can be more comfortable than heels and more formal than flats, and they are also more gender-neutral.

• Accessories, such as a scarf, jewelry, watch, or cufflinks, are a great way to show your individuality and personality. Another plus is that they can also spark conversations. Just avoid anything that makes too much noise when you move.

Basic conference etiquette

Entering/Exiting a panel

• Conflicted about which panel to go to since there are papers you want to listen to in more than one panel? You can come in and out of a panel while it is still in session. Just wait for a pause between papers so your entry and exit is not too disruptive. Or you can usually stand in the back of the room if you enter mid-talk and then just take a seat between speakers.

• Try not to enter a room and immediately leave. Also avoid hopping out of a room in the middle of someone’s talk. Departures mid-talk can be anxiety-producing to a speaker.

• If you do really have to leave in the middle of something, you can try to tell the speaker in advance.

• [Online] Many online conferences still make '“room hopping” possible and entry/exit is in a lot of ways less disruptive than in person. Just make sure to be muted.

Basic social niceties

• Avoid chit chat and NEVER trash anyone during a talk - you never know who is behind you and how they are connected to other people.

• Try to be ‘present’ during a talk or during a social interaction. Nodding off or working on the computer during a presentation, or giving the impression that you’re looking for someone ‘better’ during a conversation, is very disheartening.

• It’s not a good idea to move around the conference always in a clique. While moving together in a familiar group can be comforting, it can also be intimidating. Be open to meeting others and be open to others coming up to you!

• Outright hostility is rare but it can happen. Try to intervene if the interaction is ugly and know that if you are the target, the other person is the one giving a really poor impression. But keep in mind also that “awkwardness” can sometimes be perceived as “aggression.” A person who is fairly abrasive can just be awkward/insecure. Fairly pointed questions are not necessarily attacks and might very well be attempts to help you sharpen your thinking. Be generous.

• Conferences are a busy time for everyone. Attendees may also be working in service capacities on top of presenting, listening, and meeting other people. If someone does not have time to share with you, don’t automatically assume it’s a snub. Parties are great since most people are readily in a socializing mode there. You can follow up in an email! Be generous if people don’t respond to emails right away. Feel free to follow up a month after the conference when things have settled down.

• [Online] Try to limit the public chat while someone else is talking online, especially if it’s not relevant to the presentation. It can be distracting and rude to the presenters. Side chats can of course be very good and productive, but if it’s very distracting to you when you’re presenting, ask your presider to minimize chat. Disable pings or alarms so they don’t go off during an online talk.

Presenters & Presiders

•  KEEP TO TIME. If anything, it is better to run short. If everyone runs over by two minutes in a 5-person panel, the final speaker may very well be cut short by 10 minutes and be unable to present to their best ability. Presiders and moderators should intervene and keep people to time, regardless of rank!

• Some Q&As can get particularly heated or take too long. The presider should take action if an audience member is inappropriate or outright hostile to a speaker. To cut off a Q&A with too many questions, you can politely mention that you encourage all those who were unable to get their question in to come up and ask the speaker at the end of the session.

• Presiders, try to have a question ready to ask for every paper in your session. This can help break the awkwardness of initial silence or if a presenter receives no questions from the audience.

Tips for presenting at a conference (based on advice from Mary T. Boatwright)

From abstract to presentation

• Your thinking can change in the lead-up to a conference, so the content of your paper can be different from what you originally submitted in the abstract. The content of your paper should reflect your most recent, up-to-ate understanding of your topic.

• You don’t necessarily have to have everything solved in the content of your paper. It may very well be a work in progress and you can think of your paper as setting up the conversation

• If your paper originated as a seminar paper, take some time to convert the language so that it is more suitable for oral presentation. Keep the sentence structure simple, colloquial; write or rewrite for the ear.

• It’s always welcome to be a little short; avoid going over time at all costs! Nobody is ever sad that a talk runs short. A good practice is making your paper a minute short. Be prepared to cut a bit if the session is running late. Other variations of this essential tip: KISS (keep it short sis) or BBBBB (be brief bro be brief).

• A good rule of thumb is that it takes 2 minutes to read one page of double-spaced, 12-point font.

• Treat your presentation like a performance. If you really struggle with presenting, you can write cues to yourself, like (PAUSE HERE FOR A SECOND AND LOOK UP)

• Signpost to your audience. Include verbal cues to direct the audience to your handout where appropriate, e.g. “If you turn to handout 2…”

• Have clear takeaways for your audience, but avoid inundating them with too many conclusions. Having three major takeaways you want your audience to come out of your talk knowing is a good default. Including a roadmap at the beginning of a presentation can help the audience to follow your train of thought.

• Add frills to invite the audience to show again that it’s a performance and the beginning of a conversation, inviting them to join you in furthering your thoughts about the matter. You can end your paper with a “Thank you” to signal the definitive conclusion of your talk.

• Give just the big picture of your argument. Use powerpoint to provide more details. Keep examples in reserve for question-and-answer period.

Paper Content and Format (updated Dec. 2023)

• Focus on one passage, or one idea to use as an anchor.

• Be sure to state your claim by the end of the first page, second page at the latest. For audiences it is helpful to hear the “I argue” statement.

• Three step set-up: state the thesis; state your body of evidence (what works you will talk about); state the importance of your thesis to the audience.

• Remember to align the content of your paper with your title and abstract! If during your research, the title/abstract is no longer the focus, state that upfront for your audience.

• To be sure you fit within the time limit, practice, practice, practice!

Presentation Style: read your paper as a script or improvise? (updated Dec. 2023)

• If the conference has a specific webpage with a guide to presenters, follow that. For example, click here for the CAMWS presenter guidelines.

• If the conference is a smaller gathering, you can ask the organizers in advance.

• Workshops, round tables, respondent panels are different from paper presentations and are generally unscripted.

• Know yourself. What style are you most comfortable with?

• Consider semi-scripting and using note cards or visual aids that help keep you on point, but allow for a degree of freedom.

Practice makes perfect!

• You want to feel confident when you are up there in your presentation. Part of that is practicing your presentation, reading it aloud so that you feel you’re on top of it, and also being there in person and feeling you are presenting yourself so that you’re not apologetic or thinking about something showing that you don’t want to show.

• Practicing by yourself allows you to make adjustments. Also use this time to see if you can read your paper easily and comfortable. You might enlarge the font of the script to make it more readable for yourself.

• Check words you might have trouble pronouncing and check your pace. Avoid speaking too quickly.

• Time yourself. If you’re running over, time to cut more of your paper!

• Practicing with friends, especially those who aren’t in your field, can help you workshop what needs to be more straightforward.

• If you don’t have an audience to practice on, you can always record yourself to see how you sound.

Performance time!

• Project to the audience your confidence; you are the expert, and you know this subject matter

• Do not ask for approval; tell your audience what you’ve been working on and what you have brought forth to them

• Sometimes it’s nice to start off the presentation by thanking the organizer or presider

Handout

• If you have handout, keep it simple and short. A single page (printed front and back) is a good goal.

• Always include translations for your Latin or Greek text. You can include the translation below the text or use a side-by-side format with the ancient language on the left and translation on the right.

• Organize the handout clearly so that it follows the order of ideas in your presentation. Number your passages/images/items on the handout. Refer to those numbers in your talk so you can direct the audience to specific parts as needed.

• You don’t need to read the original Latin or Greek of a passage on your handout fully, especially if it’s too long. It’s generally better to read the English translation and the audience can find the matching ancient text through bolding and such. You can also read sections of the passage or paraphrase the content. An exception is reciting well known sayings, such as arma virumque cano. You can say those aloud without providing an English translation since you can expect most people in the audience to know those sayings.

• Bolding is usually better than underlining text in the handout for reading accessibility. Make sure to bold a corresponding English translation to match the ancient text to make it easy for a reader to follow along.

• Your choice of using a powerpoint or handout is up to you and what works best for your presentation. Powerpoint is better for something more picture-heavy.

• If you do a powerpoint, you can add a final slide at the end to put the ball back into the audience’s court to continue the conversation.

Additional Handout Tips (updated Dec. 2023)

• The panel presider should help distribute handouts to the audience. Sometimes fellow panelists help distribute handouts to the audience.

• A handout is a tool for your talk; it has a little bit of narrative to it; helps orient audience.

• Use the header/footer to include your name, institutional affiliation, email address, and name/date of the conference (e.g., “CAMWS 2024”).

• Provide Latin/ Greek and translations into English. Note whether the translations are yours. Ideally translations are side by side.

• Provide bibliography and qualify it: “Selected Bibliography” or “Works Cited,” or a phrase that most accurately represents the list you are presenting, so that audience members aren’t led to believe that you are unaware of items not on the list.

• To make your handout accessible, use bold face, not underline; 1.5 or 2 space, 12-14 size font; choose your Greek font carefully; number the items on the handout; use page numbers.

• Create a QR code for audience to scan and have digital version.

• Remember to use the WCC on-demand mentorship form to ask for someone to read your handout.

Handling the Q&A

• The Q&A is the most fun for a lot of people, but it can also be frightening. It’s ok if you don’t know the answer to a question. You can respond by saying things like, “That sounds familiar – can I get back to you?” or “Thank you, I’ll think about that and I’d love to follow up later by email.”

• You can seed topics for questions into your paper by saying things like, “I’d love to talk about this in the Q&A because i don't have time to in this paper!"

Additional Advice for the Q&A (updated Dec. 2023)

• Sometimes people will ask questions that are simply unrelated to your topic. It’s useful to practice formulaic responses that are polite and acknowledge the question. “Thank you for that question; I haven’t considered it from that angle.”

• If the question is complicated or difficult, take a step back to make sure you understand the question. You can repeat the question back, “So what I’m hearing is that you are asking me about….?” Then the interlocutor can clarify.

• If the question is rude or brusque, it’s incumbent on the presider to moderate the situation. If the presider needs a nudge, you can say: “For that question, I’m going to defer to the presider’s judgement.”

• You can always offer to continue the conversation with the interlocutor after the panel.

• Silence is okay! Sometimes people just can’t think of a question on the spot.

• You may have to take correction on a point. Ideally the interlocutor will approach you individually. However, if you are corrected in a public forum, just acknowledge the correction, “Thank you for pointing that out to me, I’ve made a note to correct that.” And move on! Consider yourself fortunate to have been listened to so carefully and to have been corrected before moving any further!

Networking and making the most of the conference experience (based on advice from Ruth Scodel)

Tips on what to say and how to have a conversation if you’re not an outgoing person

Small talk! You can concoct a list of conversation-starters to help you carry through those first difficult minutes of meeting a stranger. Here are some specific academic-specific formulae you can use:

• How are you enjoying the meeting?

• Have you heard any really great papers today?

• Where are you based?

• What do you work on?

• You can also self-referentially share how difficult it is you find it to start a conversation: “I never know what to say to people at these events. Do you find it easier?” You’ll likely find many people who feel the same way!

If you already know the person in some capacity, you might talk about papers and sessions.

• I wanted to follow-up on something you said in your paper! Or, I didn’t get chance to get my question in during your session, so I’d like to ask…

• I saw you in X panel and I really appreciated your comment about X. I’d love to continue to conversation if you time.

• I couldn’t go to your paper earlier today but it sounded really interesting!

• I’m looking forward to hearing your paper!

• NEVER LIE ABOUT YOUR INTEREST

This is rare but you might encounter someone who expects you to know them already and who might be annoyed by standard questions (e.g. what do you work on?). You’re likely to recognize those kinds of people anyway. Mild flattery in this case is always useful.

• For example, if you’ve read their book and found it useful, mention that to them! You can start off by saying something like, “I’m a graduate student at X and found your book/article very useful. I’m wondering if you’re planning to pursue this line of thought…”

What are good events at conferences to approach someone?

• On the first night of the annual meeting of the AIA/SCS, the WCC hosts a reception that encourages costumes. Costumes give you a great opening! You can always go up to somebody and say, “Wow! I love your costume! How did you create that?” Going to an event in a funny costume can also make people interested in coming to talk to you.

• Parties hosted by institutions are often a way for you to meet up with people you already know. But it’s also a good opportunity to meet people you don’t know through mutual connections!

• Wandering through the book display is also a delight! It’s less noisy than receptions, and you can often catch people alone or in smaller groups. You can start the conversation with how you’re interested in looking at the same book: “I’ve been waiting for this to appear for 2 years.”

• Many events can be hit or miss. Some will come off well, some won’t. Try to be open and generous.

• Smaller events and conferences often work better for serious professional development. The Liverpool listserv is particularly useful for finding out about smaller online events coming out of Europe! See above for how to subscribe to the Liverpool listserv.

How can I approach a specific person I’ve never met before at an event?

• If there is someone in your subfield you want to meet, plan a topic you want to talk about, but don't go up to a senior scholar and try to initiate a long conversation about something they wrote twenty years ago. And don't ask them to read your 300-page manuscript. Most people, though, are flattered at being asked for advice, so you can initiate a relationship that way as long as it doesn't feel like a time sink.

• While you’re talking to people, you can say that you’re keeping an eye out for so and so. (You want to avoid giving off the feeling that you’re looking for someone else ‘more important.’).

• If you don’t know what the person you’d like to meet looks like, you can ask people you’re talking to if they happen to know so and so and if they can help you spot your target.

• If at all possible, when you’re hoping to turn someone into an ongoing connection, you can ask a question at the talk. If you don’t get a chance to ask them a question during the talk, you have a perfect opening: “Hi! I didn’t have a chance to ask this question at your talk…”

How can I make a connection with someone who left the conference before I got a chance to talk to them?

• Email! Check the program for their contact info. If that is not readily available and they have a social media presence on twitter, feel free to reach out to them on there!

• You can start your message off by saying you were at a conference and didn’t have a chance to meet them, e.g. “Oh, I would’ve loved to meet you and ask you out for a coffee if the conference hadn’t been cancelled!”

• However you reach out to someone, do so graciously. Don’t expect them to drop everything to answer you right away. Be wary of using up people’s energy. Flattery goes a long way!

Establishing a longer-term connection beyond the conference

• Asking someone’s advice is always flattering! (As long as it’s not too demanding.) Shoot an easy question and you can build up to more.

• Follow up in email to continue the conversation or to reestablish a connection. You can say things like, “I really enjoyed your talk” or “I really enjoyed meeting you,” and continue the conversation. Try to keep the follow-up email short.

• If you meet in person, exchange contact info and write what you talked about on the back of your business card or piece of paper before you hand it to them. Do the same if they give you a card. It can help both of you to remember your connection and helps you to stand out as well

• If you have the time, join some service for the organization writ-large. You can really get to know people through beyond scholarship. Service and volunteering is a great way to make connections that will endure!

How can I network in a Zoom or online format?

• At online conferences, asking a good question is usually the best way to start networking.

• A great way to maximize your networking contact is to send people follow-up emails right after the talk, based either on the talk or conversations in the chat. You can say, "You mentioned X author in the chat and I would love to know more about how you're applying their thoughts…”

• Pets entering into view on screen always makes for a good bonding moment you can mention in the chat

• Smaller online events and conferences are particularly good for networking

Additional Networking Tips: how to approach an established scholar (updated Dec. 2023)

• If they are giving a talk, attend and stay after the panel to introduce yourself. If the moment is too crowded, you can always approach the person later and begin by letting them know you attended their talk.

• Ask a mutual friend to introduce you.

• Email them after the conference, or after having read their article/book.

• Sometimes scholars are standing by themselves, feeling rather awkward too! You can always approach and introduce yourself.

Conferencing while on the job market (based on advice from Nandini Pandey and Amy Pistone)

• Finish your paper in advance

• Never check a bag

• Remember the conference begins when you're on the plane - be nice because you never know who's looking

• Preserve your energy as much as possible: don't share a room if you can afford it, get plenty of sleep, take breaks between things, go for walks

• Stay hydrated

• Bring food like instant oatmeal or granola bars so you can eat quickly in your room and not waste time queuing at the hotel cafe

• Snacks are critical

• Be selective and know that it's ok to take times and go to your hotel room and chill — don’t feel pressured to go to a panel every time slot!

• Don't get drunk (moderate drinking is okay) and don’t hook up

• Have fun!

• In addition, check out the WCC Job Market Series and Joy Connolly’s SCS post on “Going on the Market…and What Comes Before: An Affable Guide to Gaining a PhD in Classics and Other Disciplines” and her excellent Job Market Handbook.
  

Conferencing while publishing (based on advice from Lindsey Mazurek)

A wonderful aspect of conferences, particularly the annual meeting of the AIA/SCS, are the publisher booths in exhibit halls where you can check out recent publications but also meet editors to facilitate your own publishing agenda, particularly the book. To maximize your experience with the Exhibit Hall at the annual meeting of the AIA/SCS, read this “How to Use the Exhibit Hall at the Annual Meeting” guide on the SCS blog.

To use the conference experience as a way to develop your own publications, you can cold email editors, network at conferences, or work with a specific editor. If you have a book proposal ready, make sure to bring that with you! When you meet an editor, show that your book is part of an ongoing dialogue and/or that it brings two fields into dialogue that aren’t normally in conversation together. Make sure you have a sense of where you book may be situated within the market. Recent similar publications at publishing houses can go either way. If a press has done a couple in your subject area, they may be interested in a third or more. If they’ve only done one, they may be uninterested.

It’s important that you’re able to talk about your book’s intended uses and to have a sense of its marketing. Do some research so you can speak to how your book can be used by certain types of university courses. For example, you can say, “here are X number of schools who teach courses along those lines.” See more tips provided in A Guide to Pitching Your Book at a Conference on the SCS blog.

Note that reviews from publishers are often only the critical section, not the compliments section of the review, so don’t be disheartened. On average you can expect 3-5 pages of comments, which is only a little bit more than what you might receive for an article. After the review, you’ll be asked to write a letter response to the review. This is ALSO a marketing document (keep in mind that anything you send in is a promotional document.). Focus on the positive things and respond to the criticisms.

For more on the overall book publication process, check out the WCC’s resource page on publishing!

Conferencing Q&A (updated: Dec. 16, 2022)

Here are the notes from the conversation at the Conference 101 Q&A pop-up event. This event was not recorded so that the attendees could speak freely, but the Mentorship Team thought you might enjoy the following gems of wisdom.

Mentorship Team Organizers: Cassandra Tran (Mentorship Director, 2022-23), Victoria Pagán (Cohort Mentorship Director, 2022-23), Eunice Kim (Treasurer, 2022-23), Suzanne Lye (Co-Chair, 2022-23)

Most important advice

• Enjoy the experience

Advice for first-time presenters

• Go short rather than long (i.e. for a 20-min presentation, it’s okay for it to be 18 or 19 minutes!)

• Write for delivery: a conference paper is its own genre so do not read your seminar paper but rather write your talk as a presentation

• Invite your listener in by using the first 1-2 sentences to orient your audience into your topic — remember: they don’t know it as well as you do!

• Signpost often in your talk to help your listeners follow along

• Preparing to give your talk

  • Visit the room before your session to get a sense of the space, whether you will be sitting or standing, and how you might have to project your voice

  • Practice delivery in front of the mirror 3-4 times

  • Insert delivery directions to yourself within the talk (e.g. “pause!”)

  • Relax or go for a walk without too many meetings in the hours before your presentation to preserve your voice and energy

  • Meditate for 5 minutes alone before going to the presentation room so you feel calm and focused

  • Arrive early to the presentation room

• Suggestions for Delivery

  • Print out your talk: single-sided, double-spaced, and in a large font with page numbers at the bottom so it is harder to lose your place

  • Hold pages up and speak out over them so voice projects

  • Cross out paragraphs as you deliver them or move your finger along the side as you deliver each line so you don’t lose your place

  • Move out from behind the podium if it’s a large one to stand next to or in front of it

  • Choose three spots in the audience to “make eye contact” during the course of your talk (but you don’t actually have to look into people’s eyes, only at their foreheads)

• Handouts

  • Include page numbers

  • Consider doing “Works Cited” and only include authors you name rather than a full list of scholars you read

    • Alternatively, do a “Select Bibliography” section and be very selective

  • Length: keep it fairly short and stick to the highlights (~4-6 pages, double-sided)

    • Include any passage that you are reading so people can follow along

    • Cite the lines of any passage you refer to in your talk but not the text of anything you are not reading

    • Include the original language of passages and indicate if you are the translator (if not, say who the translator is)

• Question & Answer Period

  • Have a pen in hand to write down references, suggestions, and names from the audience

  • Ask for clarification directly and/or by restating the question

  • You can choose whether you want to answer a question right away or can just say, “Thank you for your question; I would like to think about that some more”

  • If you have a question, you can ask the speaker after the panel, either in person or email them later

  • Networking opportunity: follow up with audience members who asked questions, particularly people you want to get to know, either in person or by email thanking them for their question, engaging them in discussion about their question, or asking them for more information

Planning your Time

Before the conference: Strategize

• Draw an Energy Map for Conferencing* and decide where you want to spend your energy at the upcoming conference then make a plan

• Schedule a few meetings with friends and/or advisors ahead of time but not too many

• Schedule in your breaks and meals ahead of time to make sure you are able to give energy where you most want to

*Wondering what an Energy Map is? Check out the video above at the 21:27 minute mark for a full explanation.

During the Conference: Pace yourself

• Take breaks throughout the day

• Hydrate throughout the day

• Go for walks outside the hotel to get fresh air at least once a day — consider doing “walk and talk” meetings

• Bring and / or buy snacks in your bag and for your hotel room (e.g. granola bars, nuts, and anything you can eat quickly and fairly quietly as you run between things)

• Eat regularly, but they don’t have to be social meals, e.g. if you have to go to many parties, perhaps you choose not to make dinner plans and order in to your hotel room instead — you can conserve energy by watching bad reality TV while eating takeout in your hotel room!

• You don’t have to attend every panel or every talk on every panel

After the Conference: Follow-up

• On the plane or in the 1-2 days following the conference, send follow-up emails to people you met at the conference

• If you gave a talk, schedule a block of time to gather the notes and feedback you received so that it is ready to incorporate into your paper

• Review your energy map and assess whether you were able to follow your plan and make notes what you might want to do the same or differently next time

Networking and Socializing

• You do not have to attend everything

• Book Room is a great place to take a break or have low-key interactions — come visit the WCC table!

• Hosted Parties — some are open (e.g. WCC Opening Night Reception — all are welcome!) and some are by invitation only

  • Meeting up with friends — it is often easier to enter a room with someone or plan to meet up with someone at a party so you know one person; it is not recommended to travel in a big group or it can be hard to meet new people

  • Going solo — perhaps start with a party for an institution where you have some connection and may see familiar faces

• Dinner — many options and no wrong way to do it!

  • Meet up with people — some people like to meet up with colleagues; some meet with local friends

  • Go solo — some people like to eat alone in their hotel room and save up energy for the parties

• Socializing — do what feels most comfortable to you so that you have as positive an experience as you can (re: follow your energy map!)