What does your conference participation schedule look like each year?

[apostrophe]

Kron3007, I have very mixed feelings about work travel, especially since summers tend to be travel-heavy. But I think that we are also talking about some non-conference travel here, such as invited talks. Do you include those in your two or three 'conferences' a year? If so, and if you feel like this is enough, please tell me your secret.

[Parasaurolophus]

I'm surprised how many conferences many of you attend. 

Well. Attending and presenting are different beasts. Presenting at 8+ a year was exhausting when I did it. And the CV returns on the investment aren't very good any more! I would attend without presenting if (1) my partner didn't mind all the absences (which she does, so...), and (2) I had funding to just attend. Then I'd definitely do a lot more.

[pigou]

I'm surprised how many conferences many of you attend. 

Well. Attending and presenting are different beasts. Presenting at 8+ a year was exhausting when I did it. And the CV returns on the investment aren't very good any more! I would attend without presenting if (1) my partner didn't mind all the absences (which she does, so...), and (2) I had funding to just attend. Then I'd definitely do a lot more.

In my field, it's common to present the same paper multiple times. Conferences are attended by different people and parallel tracks mean nobody is going to be offended if they have seen the paper already: they can just go to another talk instead. Preparing a new talk is quite an investment, but giving an existing talk again is (at least to me) pretty low effort. I look through the slides once or twice before and it comes back.

I agree that nobody really cares that the presentation is on the CV. The value, to me, is that I get to frame the paper and sell it to an audience of potential reviewers and people who will build on and cite the work.

[0susanna]

This is all very interesting.

I generally attend two regional conferences a year, or one national/international and one regional. Occasionally, I can pay for a local conference myself. My university has restricted travel funds recently and now generally funds conference travel only if one is presenting a paper or has organized a session. In the past, it was often possible to get funding simply to attend conferences.

In my field (humanities), it's usually frowned upon to present the same paper more than once, without unusual circumstances or extensive revisions.

[Kron3007]

I don't get too many invitations to speak, so it does include that.  I guess my advice is to be less awesome?  Just kidding, it may just be that I have done a lot of work in a fairly niche, or not so sexy, topic.  Recently, j have shifted into a hotter topic, so perhaps this will start to be more of an issue.

[apostrophe]

I don't get too many invitations to speak, so it does include that.  I guess my advice is to be less awesome?  Just kidding, it may just be that I have done a lot of work in a fairly niche, or not so sexy, topic.  Recently, j have shifted into a hotter topic, so perhaps this will start to be more of an issue.

Ha! Let us know how things go with Being More Awesome on the Hotter Topic.

If you are in a book field, invitations also come hard on the heels of their publication--i.e., when you've already said what you know and think. I envy writers of popular nonfiction (and fiction!) who are permitted to *read from the book they've just written*. That sounds lovely.

[nescafe]

Avoiding all the big conferences this year. Too expensive, and too anxiety-inducing. Not enough professional payoff.

I have committed to two small paper workshops: one in the US, another in Europe. I think that might be it for me. I love the kinds of connections you can make in a smaller workshop setting; the kind of event where papers are pre-circulated and there's lots of socializing built into the schedule.

[mamselle]

I'm looking into one of those, now, too.

M.

[larryc]

I am fortunate to have a professional development fund of $1400 a year, which is pretty good at a teaching university. Most years we could ask for up to another grand or so, but not this year and maybe not in the future.

Usually, I have gone to one big national conference and probably one smaller regional conference. My home conference in the National Council for Public History. But it varies wildly. Last year I spotted a conference in Oaxaca Mexico that fell during Spring Break so I did that and spent the week down there. Some years I've spend the professional development money on gear for oral history projects or whatever.

I enjoy very much the smaller conferences, state or regional conferences on history or museums or archives or anthropology.

[Bbmaj7b5]

No money = no conferences.

Hopefully one of my grant applications will hit. I wrote 11 last year.

[apostrophe]

Last two posters are right to bring money to the fore. We have research accounts–but conferences don't count for us as research, so I resist using too much of my own funds.

Invited talks are another animal. The honorarium is almost always a surprise, sometimes a good one.

[Kron3007]

Last two posters are right to bring money to the fore. We have research accounts–but conferences don't count for us as research, so I resist using too much of my own funds.

Invited talks are another animal. The honorarium is almost always a surprise, sometimes a good one.

Interesting, in my field honoraria are not common.  Usually the most we could expect is our expenses to be covered.

[apostrophe]

Last two posters are right to bring money to the fore. We have research accounts–but conferences don't count for us as research, so I resist using too much of my own funds.

Invited talks are another animal. The honorarium is almost always a surprise, sometimes a good one.

Interesting, in my field honoraria are not common.  Usually the most we could expect is our expenses to be covered.

That surprises me. I'm in the humanities (not a 'rich' field), but honoraria are totally the norm in the U.S. Sometimes it's $200, sometimes it's $1000—for the same effort. In Europe, I've found it's usually expenses only.

[Kron3007]

Last two posters are right to bring money to the fore. We have research accounts–but conferences don't count for us as research, so I resist using too much of my own funds.

Invited talks are another animal. The honorarium is almost always a surprise, sometimes a good one.

Interesting, in my field honoraria are not common.  Usually the most we could expect is our expenses to be covered.

That surprises me. I'm in the humanities (not a 'rich' field), but honoraria are totally the norm in the U.S. Sometimes it's $200, sometimes it's $1000—for the same effort. In Europe, I've found it's usually expenses only.

I'm in a STEM field, I guess it is a rich field relatively speaking.  I am in Canada, but have never been offered an honorarium when in the US either, so suspect it is norm in the field.  Perhaps I should hold out my hand and look expectantly after a talk until they hand one over...

[apostrophe]

Last two posters are right to bring money to the fore. We have research accounts–but conferences don't count for us as research, so I resist using too much of my own funds.

Invited talks are another animal. The honorarium is almost always a surprise, sometimes a good one.

Interesting, in my field honoraria are not common.  Usually the most we could expect is our expenses to be covered.

That surprises me. I'm in the humanities (not a 'rich' field), but honoraria are totally the norm in the U.S. Sometimes it's $200, sometimes it's $1000—for the same effort. In Europe, I've found it's usually expenses only.

I'm in a STEM field, I guess it is a rich field relatively speaking.  I am in Canada, but have never been offered an honorarium when in the US either, so suspect it is norm in the field.  Perhaps I should hold out my hand and look expectantly after a talk until they hand one over...

Good plan! Heh heh.

Come to think of it, we usually get paid for guest lectures, too, when they're off campus. I always assumed this was another norm.