Reasons for going to a conference

Reasons for going to a conference

I love going to conferences, but have recently noticed how the number of conference alerts, announcements and invitations I come across has grown and begun to overwhelm me. Too much choice is never a good thing (as Barry Schwartz argues in The Paradox of Choice, 2004, New York: HarperCollins), so reducing it through eliminating irrelevant reasons should help to make the right one. Particularly, that attending a conference often requires a considerable investment of time and money. 

 Unable to decide which of the two especially tempting conferences (one in June, the other one in July, both in the UK) I should attend I asked Julian and Richard for suggestions. They came up with simple but helpful remarks some of which were so good I thought I’d share them here.

 Julian’s advice was not to stray too far out of the main path of research (I’m prone to side trips) while bearing in mind that dabbling in a new theme might increase networking possibilities and bring additional benefits to one’s own inquiry. “Follow your instincts”, he said.   

 Richard came up with a few reasons why one would want to go to a specific conference. 

•  Is it because of the main speakers? Do you want to catch some of the key ‘names’ in your areas of interest, to put names and performances to names in print?

 

• Or because the conference is a regular one attracting practitioners/researchers all working in an area of interest and you want to think about becoming more attached to this community?  

 

• Is it because you have something you want to say (and that something is helpful to your main priority which is, and must always be so, the thesis)?

 

• Is it because the status of the event suits your purposes (that is, it is a high prestige event when you are ready to really fly high with your ideas, or a less daunting one for when you are still stepping out into this field)?

 

While still not sure about my answers (I might decide to go to both in the end, time and money permitting), I feel their points have clarified for me the variety of reasons for attending a conference. It’s useful to have them articulated.

 

So, now that making that crucial choice has been made easier, here is a link to yet another conference:   www.tesol.org/researchintopractice

The conference will take place in Doha, Qatar, in October 2011, and its main themes are:

• Understanding the “good language learner”
• Bridging the gap between goals and results
• Facilitating and supporting ongoing professional development

This one is easy enough to decide on: the ABP, where I work, is one of its sponsors. I’ll definitely be there!

Magda