After the conference

There are really just three things you need to do after the conference: follow up, follow up, and follow up.

Follow up with a note and promised abstracts or publications to the contacts you made. Ask them to send promised material.

Follow up with presenters you missed and ask for a copy of their handouts.

Follow up by summarizing what you learned, particularly the informal insights, in an e-mail message, and send it to your colleagues as well as those people you met at the conference. This is a very appreciated service and will get you noticed by other professionals.

Following these guidelines will help ensure that your conference experience will be informative, rewarding, and even fun. Ideally, you will benefit professionally and look forward to your next professional meeting.

Task 26. Answer the questions

1. Why it is so important for a scientist to attend conferences?

2. How to avoid registration fees if you are a graduate student or a postdoc?

3. What should you do before the conference?

4. How can a name of your better-known colleague help you at the conference?

5. What are “no-notes talks”: an “elevator talk”, a “hallway talk”, an “office talk”?

6. What should you do during the conference?

7. What are the most important things to do after the conference?

Task 27. Decide whether the sentences are true or false

1. The professional reputation depends only on the scientific conferences.

2. Registration fees are really high for the postgraduate students and low for the professors.

3. Recommendations of your adviser and senior colleagues can help you to make the conference more useful for you.

4. Scientists are often flattered if you are interested in their opinion.

5. If you came to the conference with the colleagues from your institute you should always attend all the talks together for an opportunity to discuss them later.

Task 28. Read the text, find the additional information about organizing of the conferences and translate it into English

Task 29. Read the short tips for attending a scientific conference, name the recommendations which were not included into the previous text. What do you think, are these recommendations important for you?

Tips for attending a scientific conference:

1. Be well behaved at social mixers or risk being remembered by colleagues for reasons you may not like. Similarly, be remembered for how great your poster was and not for being ill-prepared.

2. Limit your poster to not more than 4 columns wide and maximum of 9 figures or tables. It should be clear, with a bold title, and no personal pictures!

3. The poster should be self-explanatory with simple text and large writing. Of course, you’ll walk people through it, but they should be able to understand it without you too.

4. If you are giving a talk, practice in front of others who will give you critical feedback. Preparation is key to avoid using phrases such as ”like” and “ummm”.

5. Visit the lecture room where you will speak an hour ahead of time to make sure you understand how to operate the computer and have a working laser pointer. The laser pointer is for pointing, not directing traffic. Make eye contact with your audience and smile.

6. Keep talk slides simple and clear with only a few colors. Keep animations to a minimum in scientific presentations. (Marketing presentation typically have a lot of special effects but this is distracting in a scientific presentation.) Plan your slides carefully for the length of time you are speaking. If it is a 15 minute talk, you should have a maximum of 10 slides including your title.

7. During the question and answer session, it never hurts to repeat the questions before answering them. Even if the audio in the room works well, it will help the non-English speakers follow the discussion as well as give you time to think.

Attending a conference is a privilege and presenting is an honor. You’ll have the chance to impress many people with your work whether it is a poster or a talk.

Task 30. Read the information, look through the words in italics and explain them