How many conferences would you say one should present at per year?

[HelloFeminists]

Hi all,

I'm an interdisciplinary scholar in the social sciences/humanities who just got accepted to a conference that took me by surprise [our panel got rejected from another conference, we applied to another one at the last minute, and literally 24 hours after we applied after the deadline, we were accepted]. While I know I can pull the paper together [i'm basing part of it on a book chapter that has already been accepted for publication, albeit in the distant future], I'm worried about the cost of flying across the country in April. I didn't plan this expense at all, I have no funding because I've already exhausted my allotted reimbursements for the year, and the original conference I applied to was in the same state as me [and thus far cheaper]. However, at the same time I think it would be very good for me professionally - it's a national conference and in one of my research interest areas.

All this comes down to: how many conferences do you think one should present at per year in the social sciences/humanities? I'm a third-year grad student and I've already presented at two national conferences this year, both on my dissertation research, and this third one would be about a side project. I'm also going to be in a much smaller conference in February hosted by my department at my home university. Do you think there is a point where conference presentations are overkill? Does having more actually cheapen the value somehow, or do you think it's a situation of "the more the better"?

I'm going to be asking my advisor all this when I meet with her, but I thought I'd see what you all had to say / how much you present a year. Not to stroke everyone's egos but for genuine feedback Thanks!

[kotov]

I went to one first semester and I'll be at another one this semester, plus the grad student conference my school is putting on, which I'm required to present at. I feel like this is easily doable for me, since I'm not putting in a huge amount of extra work to get my presentations ready. Plus, it's a chance to get your work out there, both from the standpoint of getting criticism and from the standpoint of people seeing it, so those are both huge benefits in my mind; from that angle, I'd say try and do as much as your schedule/workload/budget allow you to!

[Riotbeard]

I have been on course to do about 1 a year. I have heard they are more good experience than important to having a strong c/v. Great for networking and all that but I don't think it matters too much.

[Andsowego]

I'm in the 3rd year of my PhD, and I've done 2-3 conferences per year. I try to mix it up between solo papers, co-authored papers, and roundtables. I've never done a poster session. This number completely depends on whether or not I can scrounge up the finances to travel (and obviously how far I need to go for each conference since air travel in/out of Canada isn't cheap). From what I understand, one conference/semester (term?) is a good number (at least in the social sciences).

edited: I want to add as well, that I recently had a professor caution against going "conference crazy" just to enhance a c.v. (not referring to me specifically, it was something she said in a general presentation). If you've already got a lot of conference credits, you might want to work on getting more publishing credits - especially towards the middle/end of your PhD program, since that's when you should be thinking about what it will take to get hired in the near future.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Andsowego

[Behavioral]

I did 1 in 2009 and 5 in 2010 as an undergrad. One of those posters is now under R&R at a major journal.

Besides that, though, I'm not planning on presenting a paper or poster this year as it's my first year in my PhD program and all my research prior to this is not relevant to my current research projects. It seems like the upper-echelon students in Psychology present 3-6+ national conferences/invited presentations per year their last 3-4 years in grad school.

[eco_env]

How can people afford so much travel? or how can their schools afford to pay for so much? I don't think I'd be able to get enough funding for more than one per year... maybe not even that. I'd pay the rest, though, if necessary- 1/year seems reasonable in ecology- there's only one ESA conf/year.

[Andsowego]

How can people afford so much travel? or how can their schools afford to pay for so much? I don't think I'd be able to get enough funding for more than one per year... maybe not even that. I'd pay the rest, though, if necessary- 1/year seems reasonable in ecology- there's only one ESA conf/year.

My university gives a small travel grant to a student who has a paper accepted at a conference (just one grant per school year). I try to use that grant to buy a plane ticket to a really worthwhile inter/national conference in my field. Additional conferences are paid for out of my pocket, so I try to select ones that are relatively close to where I live and don't require a plane ticket (perhaps just train, or carpool with others who are attending the same conference). I also cut corners on hotels when I can (e.g., don't stay in them! try to find dorm-style accommodation at a local college/university, or stay with family/friends when possible). I've also gone to conferences where I just go for the day on which I'm presenting, thus only having to stay overnight once, rather than for multiple days (but then you're sacrificing attending the rest of the conference, so it's a trade-off). You could also look into grad student conferences (run by students, for students) at other universities close to where you're located. The fees are usually cheap (if not completely free) and it's a good chance to meet other grad students in your field (plus it's an excuse to chat with professors from other universities). Although student-run conferences aren't as "prestigious" as inter/national conferences, you'll still present a paper, still get feedback, still get differing perspectives from others in your field, and still have something useful to put on your c.v.

Edited January 20, 2012 by Andsowego

[Behavioral]

University, department, and (if necessary) advisor's funds. I only paid for 2 out of my 6 presentations so far out of pocket. I also got lucky on two of my presentations because I presented a poster at a pre-conference (sub-society of a larger more general society) and the parent conference with only a small marginal cost.

[msafiri]

I typically attend 2 conferences per year (though not this year because I'm overseas doing fieldwork). I attend a regional/specialty conference, usually in the fall, and then the national conference in the spring. The regional conference offers funding to student presenters, which I've always been successful at getting. And, because it's regional, there are usually cheap flights or I can drive there. For the national conference, I use a combination of personal, departmental, and grad association funds to pay for as much as possible. To save on expenses, I always try to stay with friends or, if that's not possible, split a room with others to cut down on the cost.

[fuzzylogician]

Lets see.

1 before I started grad school - I paid by myself, slept in a hostel and got a discount from the organizers for the registration fee.

2 in my first year of grad school - one inter/national, one small student conference, both happened to be in my own city, the large one at my own university. No expenses at all.

4 in my second year of grad school - three inter/national, one small student conference. All my expenses were covered by my department through my travel funding (we get $2000 for 4 years + $500 for the 5th year). My colleagues presented our joint work in 3 other conferences: we got partial funding from two conference and one was invited.

3 so far in my third year - a small one at my own university at no cost, two inter/national; I'll use up the rest of my travel funding for that. I'll also go on a research trip over the summer, the funding for that will come from a university-internal grant.

1-2 future trips will be covered through another departmental travel-funding source. Beyond that I'll have to either pay my own way or apply for outside funding sources.

ETA: in two cases, I had two posters in the same conference. That's another way to save costs..

Edited January 24, 2012 by fuzzylogician

[CarlieE]

I don't know if the expected number of presentations ramps up with each increasing year of grad school but..

But as an UG, I'll have presented papers at 2 student conferences, 1 professional/national conference and 1 poster at a student conference. I've been encouraged by my professors to do at least one student conference (usually one held by the uni) and a professional conference.

I start grad school in the Fall, so I expect that in my first year 2 will be expected from me.. Publishing though, seems to be where i am directed to focus on.. rather than presenting..

My UG uni is great; there's no funds for an UG student attending and presenting at conferences but my professor, with whom I did the research and listed me as a co-author, was able to get me some money from the department. I had to pay first, then keep ALL my receipts (very, very detailed receipts; the graduate office wanted to know EXACTLY what I ate) and they'll reimburse me.

About lodgings, ask if the conference has blocked out rooms at the hotel where its hosted or a nearby hotel (if held at a convention center) because there might a special rate given to conference attendees. The national conference I just presented at had rooms blocked out at the Riviera in Las Vegas for $69/night.

Edited February 26, 2012 by anthroDork

[Kudrov]

I've followed a "one conference per semester" rule for the last few years, and it's worked out well. Generally, I attend a regional conference in the fall that I pay for out of my own pocket and a major conference in the spring that the school assists in funding. This actually works out pretty well, as it keeps the presentations well spaced out and keeps them from being a burden on my wallet.

[JonathanEdwards]

Do you think there is a point where conference presentations are overkill? Does having more actually cheapen the value somehow, or do you think it's a situation of "the more the better"?

I would say that more is not always better, and suggest that you carefully take stock of what you’ll get out of the conference. While hiring panels will discount anything that looks like resume padding, you did say this is a major national conference.

Some would go further. There was a document out recently with advice from a panel of early-career academics advising postgrads not to bother with postgrad conferences/poster presentations, conferences without published proceedings. That advice is rather stark, but in most humanities disciplines, it is primarily the publications that people take your measure by.

Take that for what it’s worth – I’m attending a (non-published) national conference myself in April, but have very specific reasons for doing so.

Best of luck in your program!

W.

[HelloFeminists]

I would say that more is not always better, and suggest that you carefully take stock of what you’ll get out of the conference. While hiring panels will discount anything that looks like resume padding, you did say this is a major national conference.

Some would go further. There was a document out recently with advice from a panel of early-career academics advising postgrads not to bother with postgrad conferences/poster presentations, conferences without published proceedings. That advice is rather stark, but in most humanities disciplines, it is primarily the publications that people take your measure by.

Take that for what it’s worth – I’m attending a (non-published) national conference myself in April, but have very specific reasons for doing so.

Best of luck in your program!

W.

 

Thank you for your thoughtful and warm response! And to all other responses I know I started this thread awhile ago, but I thought I'd update others and let you know that my advisor has the same sort of "stark" outlook about not bothering to go unless I'm going to get a publication out of it OR if it is the major conference in my field [which this was not; I ended up not going].

 

Ironically, I am in a similar situation right now in which I was accepted to a major conference but the paper I proposed is not my central project, I'm already getting an iteration of it published in an anthology, and the registration is WAY more than I thought it would ever be. No discount for grad students. So that's another hard decision I will have to make...

[juilletmercredi]

3-6+?  My (psychology) department only offers funding for 1, perhaps 2 conferences a year for even our best doctoral students, and even the top fellowship programs offer little to no travel funding.

 

I personally attend 1-2 national conferences per year. I will attend regional conferences if they are within driving distance and I can reasonably attend them during the day, then return home.

[Usmivka]

1 a year. That's what there's money for, and spending time prepping for more than that means I'm not doing putting out papers, which are as or more important in my field. At least for me, prepping actually new material for presentation at a conference (and why go present the same thing multiple times to a similar audience?) takes a few weeks, and I could be using that time to run samples, do experiments, write grant proposals...the list goes on. Six conferences would mean I was spending half my year on getting ready to present things to like 20 people, tops, who care enough to ask questions. But I realize that this must be really different in fields where conference abstracts  are the major work product and measure of success, like computer science.

[SixandCounting]

I used to do 2-3 a year and then fell into a problem that my adviser and fellow colleagues warned me about: Do not be the scholar that attends conferences and publishes very little. Use your time and energy to get those conference papers published, if it is at all possible or applicable.

 

In my case, I have banned myself from attending any more conferences (even in awesome locations with funding -eek!) until I publish the papers I presented last year.