Reflections from a First-Time Conference Attendee

This week, we are pleased to feature this tip by guest contributor Jarod, a fourth year Honors Economics and AWE student.

This past weekend, I had the great opportunity to attend the Parkland Institute’s “Alberta at the Crossroads” conference on campus at the UofA. Despite this being my fourth year of university, this event was the first conference I’ve ever attended and the experience was certainly novel. I wanted to bring up a few tips for other students who haven’t had the experience of attending a conference yet that will hopefully maximize your first-time experience!

1. Attend with an open, yet critical mind. Speakers at conferences tend to come from a variety of backgrounds and will often not share the same perspectives as what you may identify with. Being open to these perspectives is necessary for conference attendees, but it is also necessary to consider how those perspectives may align with or contradict your own perspectives. Taking this critical approach I think will really help elevate your understanding of the discussed topics, especially at a conference that might not be entirely related to your background.

2. Take advantage of opportunities to speak with other attendees and keynote speakers when available. While it can certainly be nerve-wracking to get out of your comfort zone to speak to a random stranger, it’s really rewarding in terms of getting a better understanding of diverse perspectives that you might not typically be exposed to in your classes or among your peers. Many of the keynote speakers at the conference were available after their presentations for short comments and questions which allowed me to develop a deeper understanding of the discussed topics as well as build some connections with people I would never have the chance to meet in my daily life. One regret I had was not speaking more to other conference attendees while at the conference which I think will be a valuable lesson I carry forward to the next conference I attend.

3. If you have a choice of what sessions to attend, try to attend sessions on a variety of topics, particularly ones that you might not be familiar with. While it may be nice to listen to topics you are already understand and are aware of, many sessions (especially at less specialized conferences like these) are developed with a general audience in mind, meaning that they are often explained in a way that any lay person with little expertise in the field can still easily understand the presentation. It’s good to take advantage of these opportunities as a means to learn something new and to develop a decent understanding of the topic.

Generally speaking, if you’ve never attended a conference before, I would say it’s an incredibly worthwhile experience. In addition to developing new knowledge and understanding different perspectives, it’s also incredibly useful in terms of building skills for networking and communication which are invaluable especially for people early in their career search. If you see the opportunity to attend a conference at this stage of your education, it’s definitely worthwhile to consider it.