What does your conference participation schedule look like each year?

[mamselle]

Just curious.

I do not always attend, but am generally aware of and propose papers to, some of the following in any given year:

1. An international conference in the US in the late spring

2. One or both of two state conferences I'm involved with, each;
   a. One has a conference each semester (I usually go to one or the other but not usually both)
   b. The other has a spring conference I sometimes attend (but not always)

3. A regional conference slightly earlier in the spring than #1 (since it's assumed most people will attend #1)

4. Every now and again, an international conference that alternates between the East and West coasts each year;
   I attend the one closer to me when I can (but haven't yet presented at it; I proposed a paper for the first time last year, but it wasn't accepted).

5. Much more rarely, an international conference that happens somewhere in the Americas (have gone twice, so far, might go again soon)

6. Only once so far, an international conference that occurs overseas

7. On the horizon, but never yet attended (it happens at a less convenient time, and it's also overseas), a conference a lot like no. 1 in scope.

8. In between, an occasional local event here or there will have a slot I fit; usually in March; I did three or four of those but am focused more on #3 now.

9. On a different topic than the above (mostly medieval, those), a regional or national event that I've presented at, maybe 3 times so far

10. A long time ago, a national event I presented at regularly, then got "out of sync" with their CFP schedule
   (I should go back to doing that, I have some good new stuff....but I just missed it again, I think!)

And, not conferences, but local seminars happen at least 5-6 times a year in town and I'm on mailing lists for those, plus a "friends of the work" group that gathers once per semester for a paper by one of us, followed by tea, and dinner if we get a quorum afterwards. I've presented once for that. 

So, among those all, three-four papers a year tops, more often 1-2. My papers run in one of two or three topics, and I usually take the opportunity to explore different aspects of each topic rather than repeat them (as discussed on another thread--which in fact got me thinking about this idea).

Usually, then, I'm going to one in the fall, and a couple in the spring, in which I'm presenting; two of those three are just a couple states away. The third is further, and I take a day on the train to get there rather than fly.  I might attend 1-2 more if they're in town, or one other if its not too far away.

I pay my expenses myself, but they're not very much in most cases; if I stay overnight, it's in a low-cost/decent place, or a school might put us up. I pack food for the trips there and back, might spend for one night out, and make a lunch from that the next day. If the group's meals package isn't exorbitant, I might get that, or just buy small meals while away (I also pack a small cooler for trips where that's possible.)

I can do local conferences for under 200.00 each; regional for about 400.00; longer distances for 1000.00 or so although I'm usually under that by 200.00 total. For international travel I do my bookings at least 6 mo. in advance to get good prices. Since I'm an independent scholar it's out of my own pocket but it's worth it to keep in touch with what's happening in my areas of interest and to meet up with friends and colleagues I value.

You?

M.

[Morden]

Wow Mamselle. You're really busy.
I usually go to one international, one national (I alternate between two depending on location and theme), and one local. The international and local are in fall, the national in spring. This coming year though I'm not going to propose to the international; it's too hard to travel that far in the middle of a teaching term.

[secundem_artem]

I'm impressed that you can manage to attend a conference for that little money.  I'm going to a regional conference next month for which registration alone (depending on membership status and early bird rates) ranges from $400 to nearly $600. 

Any kind of national conference (rego, airfare, hotel) will run about $2500.  No way in hell I'm doing the find a roommate, couch surfing, Air BnB crap to keep down costs.  I'd rather stay home.

Anything international?  Fugedaboudit unless you have a research grant with a fat travel budget built in.

In my discipline, conference fees are a major source of funding for professional organizations.  Membership rates are already $300 or more and would be even higher were it not for the "profit" they earn from conferences.  On such conference includes about $65 in the rego costs for the "closing dinner".  Of the 25,000 registrants, only a few hundred are still there by the conference  end and enjoy the banquet.  Everybody else just gets scammed out of their banquet fee.

[Morden]

I used to be on the executive of an international society. Our main source of revenue wasn't the conference itself (which pretty much broke even most years); it was the membership fees that people paid in order to present at the conference.

[apostrophe]

Thanks for posting, Mamselle. I find it hard to know how much time (and money) to invest in the near-constant conferences, workshops, etc. and regularly reevaluate.

My current conference schedule (I'm multidisciplinary) is to attend one of two big organization meetings annually. I give papers or organize sessions most times. The third big organization meeting I attend when it is nearby, and I feel like it.

Other things: I give one conference paper abroad a year and up to five (the horrible maximum!) invited talks or workshop presentations a semester. This spring, for example, I have scheduled so far three invited talks and one workshop.

Local events are constant. I attend around 3-5 per semester and more when abroad.

I've decided to skip invitations in the 2020-2021 annual year (besides one previous commitment) to try to finish some work. We'll see how that goes . . .

[mamselle]

Thanks for all the answers!

I should have clarified I'm in the humanities (or maybe that was apparent..)

Membership fees are probably lower; one group (CAA) actually has a scaled by-the-day, by-the-conference session structure that I've taken advantage of when things were really tight. It allowed me to attend two sessions and visit the book room (where I ended up pitching two projects, and getting some interest!) so that was a definite bargain.

Keep 'em  coming!

M.

[Parasaurolophus]

My subfield has nine major conferences a year, spread throughout the US, Canada, the UK, and mainland Europe. Then my field has six or seven more, depending on how you count.

Nowadays I only do the field-y ones when it's convenient for one reason or another. I attend one major subfield conference every year in October or November, plus another 2-3 in April (which is when most of them cluster). This year, I'm also doing one of the field-y ones in February.

I used to do 6-8 conferences a year, but I've scaled back significantly in recent years--not least because I've been involved in organizing three of the big subfield ones, and a smaller one on the side. But it's exhausting to write and to give so many different papers, and I've conferenced so much already that it's not like it's much of a CV boost any more.

[Puget]

That all sounds like a lot of conferencing! Maybe my field just doesn't value conferences as much (conference presentations count for very little on CVs), but I generally do no more than three. I go to one of the our big field association conferences every year which is a good place to learn some stuff, get my name out there,  and see what way the wind is blowing, and one subfield society conference which is particularly good for latest subfield trends and networking. Other than that, I occasionally end up going to other conferences if I'm invited to be in a symposium.

[wwwdotcom]

I'm both impressed and jealous, mamselle.  I generally go to our large national conference each year and cannot attend for less than $2,000. Combine high registration and travel costs with my refusal to bargain shop on what I see as an employer-required duty.  If my university or current grants don't cover 100% of the costs, I won't go.  Like S_A said earlier, Air BnB, roommate, etc. aren't happening.  Just registered for our association's annual conference and the fee for members was about $700 (over $1,100 for non-members).  Several of us have complained for years that the cost is too high and prohibitive for younger faculty and students.

[hmaria1609]

I go to a day long library conference in Baltimore once a year. It's free and the hosting venue is always a pleasure to visit.

I was going to the American Library Assoc. (ALA) Annual nearly every year, however, conference funding hasn't been as generous for the past few years.  Last year, DC was the host city, so I went.

[apl68]

We have one statewide library association conference spread over three days each year.  I'm the only member of our staff who attends that.  We also have a one-day children's services workshop every March, which we take most of the staff to. 

I go to most of the State Library's quarterly meetings.  Public library directors often piggyback meetings of our own on the back of those, since some of us will be there anyway.  The State Librarian is nice to work with us on providing meeting space.

On Friday I was at the annual business meeting of a statewide library advocacy group.  Its main purpose is to lobby legislators to keep their reflexive cuts to anything they don't understand the need for from damaging the State Library and state aid to libraries. 

Now and then we attend continuing education opportunities for library professionals.  There's one coming up next month about an hour away that I and another staff member will attend to help us provide better Census assistance to patrons.  We should probably take more advantage of these continuing education opportunities, but we're in an isolated corner of the state that's usually hours away from professional meetings.  The fact that they held these workshops in multiple locations to have one in every part of the state shows how seriously they're pushing this Census education.

In 2007 I attended the ALA annual conference.  It's the only national conference I've ever attended.  I was able to attend because the State Library paid for some of us rural librarians to attend a Rural Library Sustainability workshop at the conference.  It was a fantastic experience.  ALA was in DC that year, so I was able to take one day off and spend it all touring the Mall, the monuments, and the galleries.

Not a conference, but some time back I attended several sessions at the State Library as part of the committee that organized our state's digital public library consortium. 

[apl68]

We have one statewide library association conference spread over three days each year.  I'm the only member of our staff who attends that.  We also have a one-day children's services workshop every March, which we take most of the staff to.  I'm fortunate that a library our size has a conference and training budget to cover the (modest) expense of these meetings.

I go to most of the State Library's quarterly meetings.  Public library directors often piggyback meetings of our own on the back of those, since some of us will be there anyway.  The State Librarian is nice to work with us on providing meeting space.

On Friday I was at the annual business meeting of a statewide library advocacy group.  Its main purpose is to lobby legislators to keep their reflexive cuts to anything they don't understand the need for from damaging the State Library and state aid to libraries. 

Now and then we attend continuing education opportunities for library professionals.  There's one coming up next month about an hour away that I and another staff member will attend to help us provide better Census assistance to patrons.  We should probably take more advantage of these continuing education opportunities, but we're in an isolated corner of the state that's usually hours away from professional meetings.  The fact that they held these workshops in multiple locations to have one in every part of the state shows how seriously they're pushing this Census education.

In 2007 I attended the ALA annual conference.  It's the only national conference I've ever attended.  I was able to attend because the State Library paid for some of us rural librarians to attend a Rural Library Sustainability workshop at the conference.  It was a fantastic experience.  ALA was in DC that year, so I was able to take one day off and spend it all touring the Mall, the monuments, and the galleries.

Not a conference, but some time back I attended several sessions at the State Library as part of the committee that organized our state's digital public library consortium.

[pigou]

I probably attend around 10-12 conferences, symposiums, or workshops a year -- with 3-4 being international.

To me, travel is the nicest perk of the job and I absolutely love meeting people and seeing them present their work. It both motivates me to get my projects ready and inspires new ideas. It's also a super efficient way to stay at the forefront of research. There's no way I could read 30 papers in 3 days, but I can easily get the gist of that many at a conference (either by attending talks or hearing from people who have). For the ones that are particularly relevant, it's then also pretty easy to bug the author for a draft.

In terms of funding, it's usually my own travel funding for conferences -- but for symposiums and workshops, I ask that the organizers pay for it. Nothing fancy: economy class travel and a 4-star hotel is the norm. But it's also a good way of declining invitations that would have low marginal value. If they don't think having me there is worth spending $500-$1k, then being there is probably not a good use of my time either.

[polly_mer]

I probably attend around 10-12 conferences, symposiums, or workshops a year -- with 3-4 being international.

To me, travel is the nicest perk of the job and I absolutely love meeting people and seeing them present their work. It both motivates me to get my projects ready and inspires new ideas. It's also a super efficient way to stay at the forefront of research. There's no way I could read 30 papers in 3 days, but I can easily get the gist of that many at a conference (either by attending talks or hearing from people who have). For the ones that are particularly relevant, it's then also pretty easy to bug the author for a draft.

I have something similar, except I generally do no international traveling in a year.  I purposely look for the similar audience events in the US and ideally something local.  We host a lot of targeted symposia and workshops because it's more efficient (and overall cheaper) to work out rotations among the biggest attending institutions for those targeted research areas.  Thus, the times we host, we have 100+ local attendees.  When someone else in the US hosts, we tend to send 25-50 people.  When the host is international, we tend to send 20 because many of us decline to do international travel when we can wait four to six months for essentially the same audience somewhere closer.  The other biggest attending institutions do something similar.

Funding is not a problem at my current employer.  Individual scientists are encouraged to go to the relevant international/national conferences, especially the big attendance ones.  Because of our overhead rates, the travel expenses themselves are the smallest part of the travel unless we're going international.  The problems we usually encounter as an institution are the one extreme of trying to get a larger percentage of folks to do any traveling for the benefits of efficiency at staying at the forefront of research in their areas and the other extreme reining in the recently hired who are so thrilled at getting to attend practically everything that they don't spend enough time not traveling to get the non-publishable work done that is place bound.

[Kron3007]

I'm surprised how many conferences many of you attend.  I generally go to 2-3 per year and dont really want to do any more.  I do travel a bit for other work related purposes, so I suppose if that were not the case I could do more conferencing.  As it is, my partner dosnt like how much I travel but maybe when the kids are older that will change.