Conference Season is Upon Us
This piece originally appeared in the September-October 2023 edition of SSWR DSC’s Monthly Monitor, available here.
Fall not only signals the start of the academic year but also the beginning of conference season.
Doctoral students are often told that academic conferences are necessary for professional growth and vital to those who seek an academic career. They are not quite as solemn or intimidating as they can be made to sound. A conference lends an atmosphere of enthusiasm for learning about the academic culture and can be a space to bond with fellow students and faculty. They present an opportunity to network across institutions, research areas, and even disciplines.
On an individual level, attending an academic conference can be a great way to build your confidence in presenting to a diverse crowd. It might even incentivize you to complete that paper or project you have been mulling over but has not come to fruition. Each conference is accompanied by a specific theme, and the expectation here is to find common pathways between your research and the overall theme while drafting an abstract. There are various formats for submitting conference abstracts, such as oral paper presentations, posters, roundtables, special interest groups, or symposiums, and the requirements for submitting abstracts differ for each conference. Posters are often considered a way to ease into this part of academic life and can feel less stressful than an oral presentation or symposium.
Sometimes, it can be challenging or even overwhelming to navigate a plethora of information, including deadlines, submission instructions, and deciding the right format for your abstract. Discussing these with your faculty mentors and colleagues can help you gain clarity, especially if this is your first time applying to a conference. Furthermore, doctoral students are sometimes provided with additional programs, graduate school funding, or scholarships to participate in conferences, and while these funds may be limited, it is always a good idea to plan and apply for them. Funding support can go a long way towards easing conference registration and travel-related costs. Participating in a conference involves several stages of planning, but once you surpass those stages, aside from opportunities for professional growth, they also open up new avenues for travel, exploring a different place or culture, and most importantly, making new friends.
The Society for Social Work & Research (SSWR) hosts one of the largest social work conferences in the U.S., which brings thousands of social work researchers and practitioners across the U.S. and globally to share and exchange knowledge on social work and allied disciplines every year. A few other noteworthy conferences in the realm of social work are the annual meeting organized by the Council for Social Work Education (CSWE) and state-specific conferences organized by the National Association of Social Work (NASW).
Tips for attending your first (or any) conference:
Talk to advisors, peers, and faculty about their experiences/advice on attending the conference. If a peer or colleague plans on attending as well, you can decide to coordinate travel plans or attend larger conference sessions together.
Ask colleagues or mentors if you can practice talking through your presentation/poster with them before the conference to build your confidence.
Pack layers and comfortable shoes! Consider bringing a backup to your work (electronic versions of your work, a flash drive, whatever paper handouts you may need electronically).
Think about how you will network with others; do you have business cards or a QR code linking to your LinkedIn/resume?
Look through the program and list of presenters in advance; make note of any presenters or attendees you may want to introduce yourself to.
Explore funding sources, including your institution and the conference itself (some offer discounted rates or student volunteer rates).