How I Ask Questions at a Conference
TL;DR? Read their paper. Introduce yourself by stating your name and institution. Start with a compliment, before asking an open-ended question. Make sure it’s something you really care about, but be humble and don’t dominate the conversation: give others a chance to ask questions. Use the microphone, always. Write your question down, and follow up with them.
Right before CHI 2018, I remember asking my labmates for tips on navigating the behemoth conference that is CHI, especially since it was my first academic conference.
One particularly useful piece of advice I got was from Jake, was to always make sure I had a question ready during someone’s talk, and if no one else has one, to ask it no matter what. I’ve never been one to shy away from asking a question when I was unsure of something, or wanted to know more. But the rationale that Jake (through Dan Cosley, through John Riedl) gave me changed the way I see question-asking: asking a question is a form of academic love.
Dan Cosley has a great blog post on this. But to summarize his points, making sure you have a question to ask means that you paid attention and thought deeply enough about someone’s talk such that you can formulate a question. Sometimes, it can even lead to new ideas, even if the topic isn’t in your field. Most importantly, if no one else has a question for the speaker, you have one ready, and it shows them that you care enough to think deeply about their work.
What I’ve learned from trying to implement this practice over the past year is that it’s not easy, but it does get easier over time. Not only do you have to try to come up with a question, but you also have to think about how you phrase your question and how it will be perceived.
1. Read their paper, if you can. Obviously, you can’t do this for every talk, and oftentimes I decide to attend someone’s talk because I liked their paper. Reading someone’s paper before their talk gives you much more insight into the decisions they made, it gives you time to really digest their contribution, and allows you to come up with a great question where the answer isn’t going to be “You can find more detail on that in the paper.”
2. Introduce yourself by stating your name and institution. Unless you’re a rockstar in the field, most people won’t know you, and this is a way for you to build recognition and get your name out there (not just for yourself, but also for your university—especially if you’re from one that’s lesser-known). But remember, stick to mentioning only your name and institution; no titles, affiliations, or degrees. Anything more and it will start to come off as unnecessary and condescending.
3. Start with a compliment. Not only will this help the speaker feel more comfortable and less likely that they need to defend their work, but oftentimes as a speaker I’m wondering, “Was it okay? Did they like my work?” Starting with a compliment makes the speaker feel good about their work, and excited to tackle any questions that they get.
4. Ask an open-ended question. This gives the speaker more room to elaborate, as opposed to questions where the answer would be only one or two words, where you already know the answer, or where the answer might be in the paper (see point 1). I remember my friend Aakash’s talk at CSCW 2018, where he was unable to finish his talk in the allotted time. No one else in attendance seemed to have a question ready yet, so I took the opportunity to ask a question that let him conclude his talk, and, to be quite honest, it felt good.
5. Make sure it’s something you really care about, but be humble, don’t make it all about you. When you really care about something, that excitement will show, and indicate to the speaker that you care about their answer, and aren’t asking a question just for the sake of it. It’s okay to ask hard questions, something that maybe you’ve been grappling with of late, but don’t do it for the sake of putting someone in a tough spot. Maybe even preface it with, “This is something that I’ve been having a hard time with, and I’d like to know what you think.” There are hard questions that are good and those that are terrible. You want your question to be in the former category.
6. Don’t dominate the conversation. Everyone hates that one person who keeps interrupting the speaker and doesn’t let them answer. Don’t be that person. Let them finish, listen to them, and only then follow up with a comment, a quick question, or a “thank you.” But..
7. Give others a chance to ask questions, especially more junior students. If you’ve been consistently asking questions in a particular session, stop. Give other people a chance. More importantly, if you’re the most senior person in a room, you’re more likely to get picked to ask your question, which means less senior or less well-known people are losing out on the chance to do so. Try to be aware of those around you, and if you get the mic, but notice someone next to you who wasn’t picked, hand it to them. If you’re in a line for the microphone, and you see more junior people behind you, let them go ahead of you. Questions aren’t the only form of academic love.
8. Use the microphone, always. Far too many times I’ve had people ask me, or I’ve had to ask others, “What was the question?” Using a microphone shows that you’re being considerate of everyone in the room. If you can speak loudly, sure, the speaker might be able to hear you, but it’s unlikely that someone ten rows behind will be able to, especially in large conference halls. Not to mention, there are people who are hard of hearing or deaf. Even if there’s a translator in the room, if the translator can’t hear you, they can’t translate. Wait for the microphone. Use. The. Microphone.
9. Write it down. This isn’t necessary, but I find that writing down my thoughts helps me process them better, and sometimes, I even return to them months later.
10. Follow up with them. I’ve had some great conversations afterwards with people because I asked them a question during their talk. Last week, Mary Gray was presenting her book here in Washington, D.C., and her answer to a question I had asked completely changed how I thought about careers (for gig workers) and how that may be an archaic concept for some people. I’ve even made some of my closest friends because I followed up. If I wasn’t able to ask my question, the fact that I wrote it down helped me remember and ask them the next time I saw them.
Thanks for reading, and let me know if you have any other strategies on asking questions!
