Landing a big fish

A different kettle (Photo by Tseen Khoo)

Conferences and symposiums live and die by the quality and wow-factor of their keynote speakers.

I’ve seen keynote line-ups that have me frantically searching for how to register, without caring how much it might cost. I felt I just had to be there to see that specific constellation of academic brains.

Securing keynote speakers is a process that isn’t particularly well covered in any career development material because it can be a niche concern.

For anyone who’s convened an event, though, it is the element that keeps you staring at ceilings until 4am in the morning, or has you tearing your hair out at your desk at 9pm at night.

Sometimes, securing keynotes can be ridiculously easy. One of the convening committee may know the perfect people – and I mean ‘know’ in the academic sense of having worked directly with them (e.g. as mentor/thesis examiner, co-editor, co-investigator).

This connected person just drops their high-flying buddies an email and – voila! – you have one or two stellar drawcards for your conference.

More often, however, you may have to take the more traditional and insecure route of a cold (occasionally tepid) approach, and invite Big Names with no ‘insider’ connections.

Here are my top five strategies for getting that Big Name to keynote at your event:

Building Conference Karma 2: Question Time

In my previous post about building conference karma, I forgot to address the issue of question time, one of the most daunting arenas that many early career and postgraduate researchers face.

Given that question time is usually only about 10 minutes, it’s a wonder that one could get that exercised about it.

I’ll tell you what it is, though, that had me breaking out in cold sweat before a paper:

It was the potential ridicule, hostility, dismissal or displays of ignorance in question time.

Sure, delivering a paper brings with it a certain amount of nervousness, but I’ve hardly seen interjections during someone’s paper (unless they’ve gone way, WAY over time and their audience is rebelling).

If someone’s going to object to your paper and its ideas, it will happen in question time.

Build your conference karma

Many years ago, when I had to give my first few academic papers and the conference dates loomed sickeningly close, I’d be almost paralysed with insecurity and brimming with angst about what could go wrong.

I’d run through my paper over and over about a fortnight before it was due to be given; no ad-libbing for me.

The whole thing would be planned to within an inch of its life AND chockers with theoretical stuffing because there was a desperate need to make sure that what I presented would be considered ‘serious’ (and we all know that nothing says ‘serious’ like incredibly dense, almost incoherent jargon).

Thankfully, I evolved, and this entry focuses on things I’ve learnt in the past decade or so’s conference-going and paper-giving. That said, I’m not setting myself up as a presentation guru.

Usual caveat: These are only suggestions, based on my personal experiences.

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This is how to make conference convenors love you:

1. Get your abstract and registration payment in on time.
2. Keep your presentation to time.
3. Be organised, and familiar, with the audio-visual that you’ll need.
4. Remember that Google (or similar) is your friend. Don’t write to convenors and ask things like ‘So, what’s the weather like in X?’ or ‘What currency do you use?’. After all, you’re supposedly a researcher, right?
5. TURN UP FOR YOUR SESSION. (Yes, it is tragic that I even have to include this, but there it is.)

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Alright, now you’re at the conference.

Five reasons to run a conference

Do you feel regularly exploited, wish you had more recognition for the things you did, or feel that your skills are being underutilised?

First: You realise you’re in academia, right?

More importantly: While these dissatisfactions are endemic to working lives in general, they seem especially visible in universities. There are ways, however, of seizing opportunities and making them work for you.

Following on my earlier post about Networking and other academic hobbies, this post presents you with the pros of convening a conference.

I’ve convened almost ten major events, in a range of convening structures (i.e. sole convenor, large committee, with an academic association). While conferences are no doubt time-consuming, for me they were also the primary catalysts for establishing a research network and significantly boosting my academic profile.

When I suggest convening a conference, people often respond with fear and dismissal. Many people worry that they don’t know how to do it, or presume that it’s just grunt-work and no good could come of it.

Granted, organising conferences is one of the top areas in which the labour of postgraduates and early career researchers is exploited, but there are ways to make these opportunities your friends.

Here are my top five reasons for why you should convene a conference: