Do some homework before choosing a conference

On our way to the IJAS conference in Canada we stopped for some fun in Dubai.

Recently I was shocked to hear from colleagues that what they thought would be a huge conference of scholars who are all interested in the disciplines linked to the themes and sub-themes of a conference, turned out to be a huge conference of scholars delivering papers on every topic under the sun, grouped together into the same strands and sessions. This is OK if you choose a multi-disciplinary conference  and are willing and eager to expand your inter-disciplinary network, but for those who actually wanted a focused and specialized conference, such an experience could  be painful (as conferences cost lost of money to attend and often scholars are only allowed to attend one conference per year) and disappointing.  Examples of multiple-discipline conferences are  International Journal of Arts and Sciences (IJAS) and the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET). Both organize conferences in a number of cities throughout the year, have huge numbers of topics and usually combines the different strands of presenters.

I attended several IJAS conferences and is currently planning for the next one in 2018. I really enjoy the multi-disciplinary networking opportunities as well as the awesome two day bus tours that are included in the conference program. To me, conferencing is not only about the academic challenge but also about seeing places, meeting people and doing awesome things.

And this is why it is so important to do thorough research before deciding on a specific conference to avoid being bitterly disappointing or even feeling 'robbed' of an opportunity to present groundbreaking research results.

And for those of you who never seem to be able to finish your paper in time for the conference; at the conference of the International Society for Teacher Education; the ISfTE conference, you will have the opportunity to work on your paper and get feedback before finishing it after the conference. At this conference, you will get time off to study other presenters' papers and up to date, this is the only conference where I experienced this type of conference; and enjoyed it quite a lot. In 2018 the ISfTE conference will be in Japan and in 2019 the conference will be held in Canada.