Now why would academics not want to combine a conference with a cruise?

Our cruise ship anchored in Germany during one of the shore excursion days after the first conference day at sea.

Conducting conferences and training workshops on board large cruise ships is a trend that the medical profession established well but unfortunately this kind of conferencing is not very common for other disciplines. In 2012 and 2013 the Clute Institute organized cruise conferences in Europe, linked with a more traditional conference that preceded the cruise conference in the city of departure. These conference cruises catered for all four of the Clute Institute’s research publishing tracks and I am sure it could have expanded substantially and developed into a very nice trend if they only would persist and allow the concept to grow.  

For a number of years now, I also follow the Academic Forum conferences which usually offered an annual cruise conference just before Christmas. So I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that the Academic Forum is expanding their cruise conferences for 2017 by adding a conference cruise to Alaska in May, and another cruise conference in October (of which the details are not yet available), in addition to the December conference cruise.

The call for papers for the May cruise conference to Alaska is already open and there is a long lists of topics on which research can focus, grouped under the themes of Business, Public Administration and University pedagogy. The cruise reservations are also open and the special offer for participants ends 16 November 2016, so if you are interested, ensure that you visit the Academic Forum page.

One of the greatest advantages of a cruise conference is that you accommodation is fixed and you do not have to pack and unpack every second day, but at the same time you are constantly moving from one exciting and beautiful place to another, at no extra transportation costs. You also have ample time for networking with other conference attendees and the conference organizers.  

So why are there hundreds of academic conferences listed on the web, but I can only find one academic cruise conference that is not linked to the medical profession? Could it be that the cruise conference is more expensive? Probably, but the cruise is inclusive of all meals and you do not need to pay extra for transportation between ports. The conference facilities are usually excellent on the ships and the ‘at sea’ days provide enough time for engaging and stimulating academic discussions and proper time slots for presentations.

Therefore, please conference organizers, do look into and invest in providing this option for the broad academic community.