I recently came back from the Romantic Novelists Association conference, held in the beautiful Royal Holloway university college on the edge of London. It was my fourth RNA conference and I’ve been thinking about what I’ve learned over the years. I hope my top tips will help you, whether your next conference is the International Conference of Functional Brain Imaging (that’ll be my cousin), or the International UFO Congress Convention (held in Nevada. Where else?).
- 1. Prepare to eat more food than you do at home. Do you usually eat a full cooked breakfast? And follow it up with pastries two hours later? And then a two-course lunch? Is our conference over-eating because we’ve paid for it and want to get our money’s worth? Or do we kid ourselves that the calories consumed at a conference will stay there, and not make their way onto the hips? What’s eaten in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
2. You don’t have to go to a session in every time slot. It’s taken me years to work this out. OMG – I can have coffee with a friend I haven’t seen for the past year instead! Maybe it’s that “I’ve paid for it, I’m darn-well going to get my money’s worth” rearing its head gain. But filling every time-slot is exhausting.
3. EVERYONE is feeling a bit nervous when they arrive. It’s not just you. That means the person lining up for coffee next to you will probably be delighted when you talk to them. If you’re an introvert, there are lots of opening lines you can use: your shared interest in romance writing / MRI scanning / UFO spotting; the session you’ve just been in; where they’ve travelled from (particularly if you meet any Little-Green-Men at the UFO conference).
4. Footwear – re-think those heels. Most conferences provide you with an impressive step-count. Comfy shoes mean they don’t leave you with a bunion as well.
5. Try to book the day after the conference as annual leave. Or the week. A good conference leaves you physically and mentally drained, and you need time to recover.
Do let me know if you have a top tip for getting the most out of a conference—particularly if it was an unusual one…
Photo credit: Steve Cliff from Pixabay images
Great tips Imogen, I agree with them all! I was shocked last year at just how exhausted I was after the RNA conference. This year I paced myself, skipping the Friday evening social, and it was definitely the right decision. I’m also one of the people who will go to a session in every slot – then regret it. I would add a practicality for contact lens wearers – take your glasses and prepare to ditch the lenses at some point during the day. My eyes got so dry and it was a relief to get my glasses on. Oh, and put your hand up to ask questions! I think speakers generally appreciate it, as do other delegates. Roll on 2026…
I’m glad you agree with my tips, Hannah! And YES to putting your hand up – particularly women. The RNA Conference delegates are mostly women so it’s not an issue, but I go to the Hay Festival most years and have noticed how much happier men are to ask a question in those big audiences. There was research done at a university which showed that if the FIRST question after a lecture was asked by a woman, other female students were more likely to follow suit.