There was a certain naiveté in the air when I went to my first academic conference. I thought that all I would have to do is to write a decent paper and to present it to the public. In retrospect this could have ended badly and I wish someone had intercepted me on the way to the airport and given me some key-warnings to know in advance. Thus, after this multifaceted experience, I thought to write the following points in a humble and only half-serious manner.

An academic conference is where scientists and other mostly sun-deprived* human beings dare to get out of their heavily neglected* workspaces in order to academize (*Regressions for these claims will soon be presented by Ruiz et al. under α<0.05 statistical significance). The goal is primarily to present your scientific results to a broad audience – beyond the usual four suspects, who will read your paper anyway – and to know the latest state of research: it wouldn’t be very funny if you invest a lot of time in writing a paper just to find out that someone just published the same thing, right?

A: Preparation before the Conference

• Know your Discussant

The panels usually consist of a few panelists (you?), a moderator, a discussant and a cheering audience. The discussant is supposed to have read all the presented papers and comments on all of the academic contributions after the presentations. Read more

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