In case any of you were like me and had NO idea of what to wear, bring, or do at a conference where you are presenting, I thought I’d give some lesson’s learned.
- Bring “calling cards” to give to people. They don’t have to be fancy, but should at the very least include your name and email address. Everyone seems to exchange them, especially on the last day. Note that business cards (for those of us with jobs) may not always be appropriate, especially for those of who work in national security jobs. It just makes for a bigger target. I did check and you can get some nice business cards from places like Office Depot for less than $10 for a box of 100.
- You are most likely safe with just a polo shirt and kakhis for the event. One guy at the conference I just went to was actually wearing jeans for his presentation. A few wore a suit, but they were definitely outnumbered.
- Useful advice from my advisor: Write out your elevator speech and practice it on your husband, cat, friend, whoever will stand still long enough to listen. People will ask about your research and this way you will be pepared.
- Find out where you can print your poster or other materials locally, just in case. Make sure that you can give them to the print shop in pdf format on a thumb drive.
- You probably already know this, but just in case, bring a pen and notebook so that you can take notes. You sometimes get good ideas while listening to what others are doing.
Poster example: DSS 2010 Poster: SimQL