Conference travel tips

(Source)

Why you might not want to go to a conference

• Conferences are expensive financially.
• Trips waste a lot of time: to attend a conference you can easily waste 3 days on trivial tasks like waiting in line for your plane. Attending ten conferences in a year means that you have wasted at least a full month doing mundane tasks.
• It is hard to get noticed in a crowded program. Meanwhile, you can pretty easily give talks (for free) in seminars at any university you want.

Where to submit your papers

• Choose conferences close to your time zone.
• Large and modern cities are more likely to have convenient Internet access.
• Choose locations that are one air trip away. Two at the most. Do not go to pretty but remote locations requiring several air trips.
• I maintain an incomplete list of decent conferences

Planning the trip

• Given a choice, favor a direct flight even if it is more expensive.
• Get there a day early.
• If you travel with someone, always make seat reservations. Even if it costs money.

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Things to do right before you leave

• Put crazy ribbons or other distinctive features on your luggage so you can more quickly spot it.
• Put all your stuff in one piece of carry-on luggage, and keep it with you in the cabin so that it never gets lost.
• Put all metallic objects you plan to carry, in your luggage. Have your laptop readily accessible so that you take it out with one hand.
• Make sure you know exactly where your hotel is, how to get there from the airport and so on.
• Make sure to choose an hotel with Internet access. Ask how much it costs.
• When applicable, don’t forget power adaptors.
• In Europe, favor the train whenever possible: it may take longer, but it is more relaxing.
• Get a calling card: hotel long distance charges are expensive.
• Bring lots of clothes.
• Bring some reading material.
• Bring pens.
• Travel light: large and heavy luggage slow you down.
• Leave your keys and most of the content of your wallet at home.
• Bring soap, shampoo and other personal items: don’t trust hotels to have everything you need. This may mean buying small (30ml) containers and putting them into a small transparent bag.
• Post a copy of your slides on the web. (You do have a web site, don’t you? If not, how do you expect people to be able to Google you during or after the conference? Forget business cards, get a web site!)
• Carry a copy of your slides on a USB key. If you don’t have a USB key, do as I do: use a MP3 player instead.
• Bring a laptop and get Internet access even if you have to pay for it.
• Bring a personal organizer.
• Use a decongestant several days before the conference and during the conference if your ears
  tend to hurt during take-offs.
• Make copies of your passport and other documents, leave a copy at home with your family and put another one in your luggage.
• Print maps of where you want to go, figure out distances between the airport, the hotel and other venues.
• Figure out ahead of time who you want to talk to at the conference and organize lunch meetings with them.

Things to do during the conference

• Don’t work hard while you travel to the conference: keep your energy for the conference.
• Don’t try to attend all talks, maybe not even most of them. Focus on a few talks/papers.
• Cabs are for suckers: in most cities, you can go between the airport and most locations using a shuttle.
• Call when you get in your hotel to let your family know your room number.
• Sleep a lot, especially the first day.
• Avoid television.
• Carry some cash, especially local currency: taxi drivers don’t always accept your credit card.
• Carry your passport with you or leave it in a safe.
• Make sure you are confident. If you feel like you do not belong, it will show. Convince yourself that you are a worthy member of your community. You will have more fun this way.
• Timing is important: try to ask questions and offer advice right after the talk. Don’t be loud, noisy or arrogant, but do speak your mind.
• Cheat trick to look extremely smart: some people put their paper up on their web site before the beginning of the conference, try to get a copy and prepare some questions or comments.
• Lesser cheat trick to look extremely smart: research the abstracts or the titles of the conference so that you can be better prepared to ask questions and make comments.
• Find and buy some good food like fresh fruits.
• Eat balanced meals.
• If the conference is a hotel, get confortable in your room and stay there to work.

How to present?

• Practice.
• Respect the time constraint.
• Look at the audience, not at your slide or at your notes.
• Keep your slides short on words.
• Keep it simple: refer to the written word for the details.

Watch these slides:

| View | Upload your own

Then remember that there is a lot of advice out there on the web. There are several great pages of advice. Stephen Downes suggests the old “Winging it” book, maybe you can find it in a library. I like Bob Geroch’s suggestions for giving talks.

Remember that there are lightweight solutions for preparing slides these days: PowerPoint is not your only option. For example, you can use plain HTML together with some scripts and it even supports TeX.

More tips on how to travel

• Nielsen has interesting advice.
• Fly Through Airport Security is a great page on Wired’s wiki.

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