What Makes a Conference Good?

There's a fun article in Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology on what distinguishes a good scientific meeting from a not so good one. The author advocates attending small meetings or workshops (under 100 people), which is tough for a young scientist. Small workshops are usually either not well advertised or difficult to get to. The only small meetings that I attend are local meetings, and the only workshops I go to are the workshops that are hosted at larger meetings. For a young scientist, large nation/international meetings allow for the most interaction with the most people in your field. Networking is important, and a young scientist needs to make as many connections as possible. Granted, small meeting meetings are more intimate, but they also have less people.

As for my meetings, I try to go to at least one 'far away' meeting every year -- last year it was San Diego, this year I'm going to Arizona. I also try to make it to as many 'local' meetings that I can; whenever my university sponsors a meeting in a relevant field, I try my best to attend. Also, if the meeting is a short drive away, I'll usually go. I once traveled to a small meeting, but that was because I happened to be in the area for other reasons. I always try to present either a poster or talk at any meeting I attend (it gives you something to talk about), gunning for a talk whenever possible.

I have reproduced the author's tips for conference organizers and conference goers below the fold.

Ten tips for conference organizers:

  • The best part of any conference is the human interactions, and the best conferences are those that facilitate them.
  • The ideal length for most meetings is less than 3 days -- for big ones, maybe 4, no more.
  • There's no such thing as too much background, no matter how 'expert' the audience is supposed to be. Clarity of thought is the most important quality in a speaker. Meetings that recognize these things and choose their speakers accordingly will be successful.
  • Gender and ethnic diversity in speakers and the audience helps in many ways.
  • Even specialized conferences benefit from a few talks that are outside the box.
  • The world can be divided into morning people and evening people. Meetings with a schedule that only caters to one type are making a mistake.
  • Meetings with no free time aren't just exhausting, they're inefficient.
  • Scheduling important talks opposite one another annoys the conference goers as well as the speakers. This is true even if the subjects are different.
  • Nothing ruins a conference faster than inaudibility. (You can help: if you ask a question, make yourself heard; and if you're a speaker, repeat the question so the whole audience can hear it -- regardless of how good you think the sound system is.) And, everyone needs to be able to see the screen clearly.
  • The setting matters. So does the food. Ambience is underrated.

Ten tips for conference goers:

  • In a developing country, don't drink the water. In a developed country, don't drink the beer.
  • Don't hesitate to give feedback: organizers need it. And don't neglect positive feedback: organizers deserve it.
  • Try not to hide, even if you're shy. (I've met some of the best friends of my life at meetings.)
  • Don't monopolize poster presenters. And if you're presenting a poster, don't let one or two people monopolize you.
  • If you only go to talks and meetings in your own field, you will never grow. Take a chance.
  • You are what you eat. (Given this point, you might want to skip the rump roast.)
  • Never underestimate the importance of a good night's sleep.
  • Life is too short to only go to meetings close to home.
  • Life is too short to spend a week at a meeting.
  • Have fun. Remember, science beats working for a living.

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Those are excellent points. I was lucky to get invited to a Gordon Conference once (and it was far away - in Oxford, UK) and that was a wonderfully organized conference - hit all the poins above. It was also NOT in my narrow field, which made it even better.

Oh, yeah...I gave up on the Society for Neuroscience meetings years ago simply because they had become such a relatively unproductive, exhausting drain. 30,000 attendees? That's just nuts.

I much prefer the local meetings where you get maybe a hundred people, lots of them students, and you can actually stop and think about what you are learning.