Tag Archives: Academic conferences

Virtual is the way to go for (most) academic conferences

Virtual is the way to go for (most) academic conferences

I like flying and I like academic conferences. I like the invigorating change of scenery; the excitement of face-to-face intellectual exchanges; the professional opportunities; the cultural experiences; the sheer magic of sitting comfortably in a chair at 30,000 feet. At the last count, I have participated in 22 academic conferences. Only seven did not require […] … learn more→

Save the academic conference. It’s how our work blossoms.

It’s fun to mock academic conferences. They are quite mockable, because academics are nerds. At our best, because we all know that we are nerds, we work hard but don’t take ourselves or our rituals too seriously. And yet I was concerned when Christy Wampole, an assistant professor of French and Italian at Princeton, asked, […] … learn more→

Crash course on socializing at a scientific conference dinner

You didn’t meet anybody new at the last scientific conference. You paid high registration fees, travelled to the other side of the world, listened to boring talks, nobody came to your poster. At least you met interesting people at the conference dinner, didn’t you? Well, it’s kind of hard when you are hanging out all […] … learn more→

Small World – The academic conference trek

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Somewhere, among the photocopied notes, the paperwork, the books, the rewrites and the endless forwarding to different university departments the same invoices and receipts in the endless quest for elusive conference funding, it still does. In fact, until reality set in, attending an overseas conference (or […] … learn more→