What to expect at your first international conference
Attending or presenting your work at your first international conference is an amazing experience even though it may seems scary at first. However, this is an excellent opportunity to network and learn from the excellent work done by other people presenting at the conference.
On December 4th, 2018, I presented my work at IEEE International Conference on Web Intelligence, Santiago, Chile. It was a 15 minutes presentation about my last published project:
“Leveraging Knowledge Graph for Open-domain Question Answering.”
This was my first international conference, and as a newbie, I didn’t know what to expect. One of the things, at first, that was putting me at easy was the fact that the conference was being held in a Spanish-speaking country. To put it differently, since I am a native Spanish speaker, I wouldn’t have the language barrier problem, and I wouldn’t get lost around Santiago either. At least, that is what I thought. What I really learned is that for a travel of any kind, you need to prepare very well with anticipation.
Language and Culture
Before your trip, take time to learn about the language and culture of the country that is holding the conference. In my case, I didn’t pay too much attention to the language part, for obvious reasons. However, I found out later that the Spanish spoken in Chile is very different from my native Spanish. Therefore, at first, I had many problems adjusting to the tone of voice, and the speed of their talk. I, however, did a small research about the Chilean culture before my trip. This helped me to understand better their culture, and made a big difference during my trip. As a matter of fact, Chilean people were very kind and helpful during the whole trip
Maximize your trip
If this is your first time visiting the country where the conference is being held try to arrive at least two days before the first day of the conference. This will help you to calm down, and adjust your body to the jet-lag. In addition, getting there early will provide you with the amazing opportunity to explore your surroundings.
I know, it is temping to use those extra days to finish your slides or to do some extra work. However, it won’t make any difference. You should start preparing your presentation in full at least one month before your trip. Believe me, it will pay off. Otherwise, you’ll probably perform very poorly. What’s the point of presenting your work at a conference if you don’t take interest on it?.
Attending international conferences is expensive. Either if you are founded by an organization or you are spending your own money, you need to plan accordingly. In my case, I thought that the level life in Chile was going to be cheaper compared to the one in the United States. As a matter of fact, it was. However, it turned out that Santiago is one of the most expensive cities in South America. So, plan and research with anticipation.
At the conference
If you are going to attend alone the conference, and you are an introverted person, it is normal to be scared, at first. Nothing wrong with that. You are going to be surrounded by a lot of unknown people. There will be many coffee breaks, lunch, dinner, galas, events…etc where the attendants meet and chat about their work and the last trends in the field. You may be temped to return to your hotel and burn yourself out into your room. The truth is that there will be a lot of people like you. Take advantage of that situation. Go and meet them. It is easy to spot introverted people in conferences because they tend to seek refuge in the darkest corner of the room by avoiding people contact. You’ll be surprised how a weird conversation turns out into a very interesting one, or even a collaboration proposal for your next paper. If, however, you are a natural extroverted, the best thing to do is network, network, network,
During your presentation, try to be natural. In other words, be yourself. Recall that most of the people attending to international conferences come from countries where English is not the first language. Therefore, talk slowly so people will be able to follow you, and you will earn valuable time to process your thoughts between words.
Moreover, If you are the kind of people that gets very nervous before and during a presentation, calm down. Mistakes happen all the time. If you practiced your presentation a lot, and still, you failed to mention an important part of your work during the process, move on. You always can clarify that part during the questions and answers section after your presentation. The best thing you can do is to learn from your own mistakes, and from the constructive feedback provided by the audience. Recall that practice and delivery is the key.
From my experience, presentations trying to transmit, in detail, strong mathematical concepts don’t success. In other words. Unless you are attending a conference which topic is strongly related to Maths, avoid using your slides to explain in detail a mathematical equation. It, simply, does not work. Due to the limited time, a presentation is about highlighting your work. If people need more detail about your work, they can refer to your paper or ask questions about it after your presentation.
Some conferences allow a questions and answers section after your presentation. Normally, the time given for this section is about 3–5 minutes. Be well prepared for this section as well. Don’t overstimate this part of the presentation, it is very important because you’ll be asked questions that might be outside of your comfort zone. Prepare well for this section, and take it serious. The best way to be prepared is to figure out what kind of questions you’d ask to yourself if you were part of your audience. Once you get the grasp, prepare some slides, just in case, to ilustrate all your points.
Don’t try to attend all the sessions even if their topic is not of your interest. Plan ahead, and only attend sessions that are of your interest and match your line of work. For instance, what’s the point of attending a presentation about a new Machine Learning algorithm if your interest is in blockchain technology?. Probably, you don’t have the proper background to understand the presentation, and will get frustrated as the presentation move on. Recall, plan ahead, maximize your time and attend only sessions where you can learn the most.
After the conference
After the conference, and once you are back home, the best thing to do is to recap and write down all the things you learned from your trip, even if they are not related to your line of work because it is easy to forget or loose interest once your are back to your normal life style. Finally, keep in touch with all the people you met at the conference.
Final thoughts
Attending your first international conference may scare the hell out of you. However, if you know how to play this well, this experience can be turned out into an excellent opportunity to network and meet very smart and interesting people. Not to mention, visiting a new amazing country and learning from its culture. Plan ahead, don’t worry too much about unjustified worries and try to enjoy your trip as much as possible.
