Archive for September 2014

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.

  1. This doesn’t look like a lot of preparation to me. Yet, I’ve often found myself being better prepared than most others.
  2. Maybe I should print out a set of my slides just in case.