Conference Preparations
The German psychological association (DGPS) is holding its biannual conference next week. I will be there, giving a talk on Wednesday. This means that earlier this year I submitted an abstract, looked for funding, and registered. As always, it has been a long process with many gaps in between. Here is a – possibly incomplete – list of my preparations a few days before the actual event.
- Compile the actual talk, practice the talk on my own (10 minutes), give the talk to members of our department (9 minutes 40 seconds).
- Send slides to the organizers, back-up slides on two USB sticks as well as in my email account.
- Be annoyed that slides are seemingly mandatory.
- Buy train ticket.
- Read the program, select interesting talks, compile a preliminary list of sessions to attend.
- Get an impression of the conference site by looking at maps, if necessary print maps.
- Check the local public transport system, print out timetables, if necessary obtain taxi phone numbers.
- Check the weather forecast.
- Make a packing list, take as little with me as possible, bring my conference ticket.
- Print out the trivia like the city’s Wikipedia page for on board entertainment if travelling in a group.
Reading through this list I realize two things.
- This doesn’t look like a lot of preparation to me. Yet, I’ve often found myself being better prepared than most others.
- Maybe I should print out a set of my slides just in case.