Tips From My First Conference

Author: Elan Shellard // Editor: Erin Pallott

Presenting at your first conference can be both an exciting and daunting experience, whether a poster or oral presentation. I recently attended The British Society for Investigative Dermatology (BSID) meeting in Southampton. This was my first time attending a conference, let alone presenting, so I have compiled a list of tips, tricks, and advice to help you both survive and make the most of attending a conference.

I didn’t realise that planning starts way before you think it does. I submitted my abstract, got accepted and thought all I needed to do was make the poster and practice the presentation. I was wrong.

Funding

I was fortunate that my conference costs were covered by my research grant, which is an available route for some. It fully depends on the size of your grant and how much of it you may need for consumables/training.

• As soon as you know your abstract has been accepted, check to see if the conference offers any travel and accommodation bursaries or ticket subsidisation for students. Many conferences offer these; however, you need to submit an application well in advance.
• Look through your own institution’s website to check whether any travel bursaries apply to you.
• Check whether there are any travel bursaries associated with your funding body.
• Speak to your supervisors about any available grant money that could be used to attend the conference. Equally, if they are attending the same conference, you may be able to book travel together.

Booking

Booking also took longer than I expected.

• When registering for a conference there are many options for how to pay for your ticket. Most people will choose to send an invoice to the university, and the payment will come out of an active grant code you select.
• You will likely book both through an intermediate company when booking accommodation and travel. Ask others in the lab which your university prefers to use.
• Chances are, other people in your lab or department are also attending. Travelling together can take the pressure off trying to choose the best flights or hotels.

Getting Conference Ready

• I was uncertain about how to dress, but I noticed most people go business casual. So a pair of suit trousers and a nice top or a pair of chinos/jeans and a casual shirt fitted in well.
• The organisers will tell you what time you need to have your poster up, and this tends to be before the conference starts. It allows attendees to view the posters and decide in advance if they want to come speak to you when presentations roll around. Don’t worry about being a little late if something goes wrong. As long as your poster is up with enough time to present it, you will be fine.
• If you have breakfast at the hotel or a hotel nearby, be prepared to bump into other people going to the same conference. I got a bit of a jumpscare.
• Make sure you have your LinkedIn profile up and running! I have never used this app as much as I did at the conference. It’s the professional equivalent of giving your Instagram to someone you want to keep in contact with. There can also be recruiters present, which is of interest to those looking into careers outside of academia. I hadn’t used LinkedIn in years and realised on day one that I was locked out of my account. I spent a lot of the first talks taking pictures of my ID to convince LinkedIn that I wasn’t hacking my own account, hoping I would have access for day two.

Attending the Conference

• On the first day, look through the booklet provided to find out which talks you might be interested in. You can wander around and see which posters you might want to discuss (if you get a moment around presenting your own).
• Talking to PIs can be slightly intimidating. Unfortunately for me, the PI I wanted to talk to was the BSID chair. Fortunately, one of his PhD students was presenting a poster next to mine, so I got talking to him first, which was a much less intimidating link to talking to the PI.
• For me, conferences are very overwhelming. You need to remember that while the programme is full, you do not need to go to every single talk. Go to what you find interesting or think will be useful and take some space whenever you need to. I did the whole first day, and I regret that slightly as it meant that I had to miss the first part of the next day to be able to properly present my poster.
• Talk to vendors! As well as being a great source of freebies (dermatology seems to have some particularly nice perks), vendors can also have insights into new technologies that may help solve a lab problem you are having.

^{Perks of dermatology!}

• I brought my notebook, but many conference booklets have notes pages for you to use. Many people also bring laptops/tablets, which are useful as you can keep up with any work you may need to do alongside taking notes.
• Notes are important as some lab groups will arrange a debrief meeting where you present any new research/ideas/technologies from the conference. I would note down any questions you ask so that you don’t freeze when the microphone comes to you, or to follow up after the talk. Noting down any techniques you want to try, research groups you might want to collaborate with, and anything that may be of interest to your lab at large is also useful.
• Asking questions following talks can be daunting, but they’re a great way to learn. You can clarify what you didn’t understand, as well as give people something to approach and talk to you about. You can even angle the question towards a problem you may have trouble solving in your research. You now have a room of experts who can provide useful advice!
• If someone is looking at your poster, don’t be afraid to ask if you can talk them through it! At worst, they might not be interested and will move away after a small chat, but at best they might have some useful insights going forward.
• Make sure you are aware of who you are speaking to and pay attention to name tags. Try not to make the same mistake I did and ask a professor ‘How much do you know about psoriasis?’ to gauge her knowledge base, when she had done all of the fundamental research in my area.

Overall conferences are valuable; a great way to connect with others in your field and provide insight into research you may not have heard of otherwise. But don’t be surprised if you need to sleep for a day when you get home to recover and recharge!

Manchester PGRs:

– Look through the Manchester website to check whether there are any travel bursaries you can apply for.
– To pay for the registration, you will need to contact the head of finance for your division and send along your grant number and task code. You may either need them to request to raise a PO or email the conference organisers to obtain one.
– When booking travel and accommodation, you will be asked to go through Key Travel and follow the instructions on the PowerPoint below (double-click to follow), be aware that you no longer need to obtain SLT approval.

guide-to-creating-and-sharing-quotes-in-key-travelDownload

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