How to Attend a Conference Alone

It has been almost a month since my last blog post. Start-up and a conference have been the main reasons for my blog silence but I intend to rectify this over the month of October.

I just returned from the 2012 NAVSA conference in Madison, Wisconsin. It was a very well-organized conference from the catering, to the activities, and of course the sessions themselves. Madison is a beautiful city with lots to see. I went to an amazing farmers’ market on Saturday morning and had the opportunity to eat cheese, pastries, and the best apple I may have ever had in my life.

The papers and the panels at the conference were very insightful and thought provoking. I had the opportunity to have great conversations with faculty from many Canadian and American post-secondary institutions. I even met a professional editor on the flight back and we spent an hour discussing grammar and the state of education both in Canada and in the US. She was a great person to meet and nice contact to have going forward. 

Inspired by Aimée Morrison’s excellent post, seen here, I decided that when I went to this conference I was going to try to formulate strategies about attending conferences alone. Sure we all technically go to conferences alone, but we usually run into people we know or faculty from our home institution and we have lunch, go to panels, etc. However, I went to this conference anticipating knowing no one because the one person I knew who was supposed to attend and present had to cancel at the last minute for financial reasons.

My original list of strategies went like this:

1. Seek out those on your panel and network.

You have been put on the same panel for reason, probably because your research intersects in some way.  If you have a conversation with these people, even outside the confines of the panel itself, it will probably be a very rewarding experience.

2. Don’t be afraid to tell the presenter that you appreciated their paper.

There is often a penury of praise in our profession. If you liked the paper you just heard and it made you really reflect on larger ideas, tell the presenter. Guaranteed they will appreciate knowing that their work has inspired you in some way, and you will more than likely make another great contact.

3. Attend events.

So you are alone, it would be a lot easier to spend the conference in your hotel room. Don’t. Go to events, see the art, network, talk to people. You will thank yourself later.

4. Make the most of your time in the city.

What are the chances that you will return to this particular city in the near future, or ever? Slim to none. You are here now, so make the most of it. Walk around, see the sights, do the things that people are supposed to do when they are there.

5.  Enjoy your hotel room and the silence it provides for work purposes.

When are you going to have this absolute quiet again? Probably not for a long time, so catch up on your work. Do some reading. Edit that article.

From the moment I landed in Wisconsin I discovered that I needed to add a few other things to this list.

6. Avoid toxic people.

What are toxic people you ask? For me my toxic people usually come from University X* and their toxicity is a mixture of narrow-minded thinking and jealousy.  Examples of toxicity include: saying derogatory things about the work I do because I happen to work at a community college or ignoring me completely because of the fact that I teach at a community college until they see me talking to someone of stature in their eyes, or find out that I am also lecturing at a university and then I am deemed acceptable to approach. Toxicity comes in many shapes and sizes. When I was in the same space as these toxic people from University X during the conference, I found myself humming Taylor Swift’s “Never Ever Getting Back Together”.  The lyrics really reflect my sense of academic freedom; it is truly a great feeling.

7. Help graduate students with “conference sharks” if you can.

What are conference sharks? Well those are the people (usually assistant or associate professors) who find it necessary to pick on graduate students at conferences during the Q&A. Their main goal is simple, make the student feel as ridiculous as possible, and thus in some strange Freudian way boost their own frail egos.  This phenomena puzzles me because in an environment where we are becoming hyper-vigilant about bullying in our schools, colleges, and universities, why is it still acceptable to be bullied by people in a conference environment?

8. If you recognize them from Twitter, say hello.

Don’t go all fan girl on them (sorry to @nmhouston  :) ) but if you appreciate the work they are putting out there, it doesn’t hurt to tell them.  You may create a great new connection or at least a new follower.

And ultimately,

9.  Always remember what you do well.

You need to be able to tell others that you meet what it is that you do and why it is important. The two minute abstract of your dissertation is never more important than at conferences. Equally important is what you are passionate about that may not relate to what you are researching at the moment.  My blurb usually goes: “I am really interested in tactility in Victorian literature and my dissertation explored the various representations of touch in the mid to late 19^th century. Ultimately what I am passionate about is pedagogy and I am lucky that I can explore both my love of teaching (and pedagogical strategies) alongside this focus on touch in my new project which looks at Ruskin, Hardy, and others in relation to sensorial depictions of education.” Practice this blurb; it may open some interesting doors.

*Name of institution has been withheld to protect the not so innocent.