Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with conference

Do I have to share a hotel room with my coworker?

aabbbiee — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:40:51 -0800

Is it common in your academic workplace for people to share hotel rooms at conferences with colleagues? I have been in my position as an academic librarian at a state university for 7 years. Last year, following a reorganization, my position was reclassified as academic (non-regular academic). Travel policy and culture is different for staff versus faculty, and I've been confused while navigating these differences. My question is about the cultural aspect of this.

I travel 2-3 times a year for conferences, usually staying 3-4 nights. Before I was reclassified as academic, all of my travel was considered administrative, and all of my expenses were reimbursed. (Assume moderate expenses- conference rate hotel, per diem, airfare with shared-ride airport shuttles, etc.)
Now, following my reclassification, I have two types of travel. The first is administrative, as it's part of my job duties, and fully reimbursed. The second is travel for professional/academic development, such as presenting at conferences, for which I am allotted funds (equal to about 2/3 of one typical trip) from which I will be reimbursed.

To save money on this latter kind of travel, most of my co-workers get roommates for the conference. These might be coworkers, an old friend/colleague, or even a stranger picked from a listserv. Recently, I attended a conference with several coworkers. I was the only one who didn't have a roommate. One of my coworkers even roomed with her boss (though they are both in their 50s-60s). This is mostly to save money, but some have noted that they like the social aspect of having a roommate, and that it gives them a chance to chat (say, if they're old colleagues who now live far apart.)
This was the first time that the question of sharing a room on a work trip has come up for me. My boss did ask me about it, but didn't press the issue too much. Because I'd saved a huge amount on travel costs, my allotted funds covered my hotel room in total, so I didn't have to eat the extra costs of not having a roommate.
However, I am concerned that this might be pressed in the future, and that I might be requested to get a roommate for my administrative travel. This is often to conferences where I am the only attendee from my institution and where a roommate would be a stranger or acquaintance at best. While this hasn't been asked of me yet, I see the writing on the wall. I don't have any travel scheduled anytime soon. I want to figure out whether this is something that is so part of the culture that my best bet is to just learn to deal with it, or the kind of thing where I should limit my professional development only for conferences where I can afford to eat half the cost of lodging just to avoid sharing a hotel room with a stranger.

Maybe that sounds a little overkill, but I'm obviously having some issues with this idea. I really do not want to see my coworkers in their pajamas, hear their nighttime noises, or have to have them see/hear me/mine. Conferences are exhausting, and my hotel room is my area of respite. I'm an introvert; sharing a hotel room would mean that I would feel pressure to be "on" when I want to zone out. There are a lot of reasons why I don't want to share a room with people I know professionally. But this is clearly not the case for everyone.

My question: Is this a common cultural aspect of academia? Is it common for academic professionals (not students) to share hotel rooms? Do you? Did you have to get over some mild discomfort with the idea? Do you have any words of wisdom from me on this?

Sub-question*:
I am also interested in your thoughts as to whether there's a gender thing in play here. Are female librarians expected to share hotel rooms while male librarians might not be? Does a more male-dominated academic field have a different culture of room sharing?
*Sub-question is not intended to provoke an argument. I am purely speculating in that way that we sometimes do when we want to think there are unfair reasons for asking us to do things we don't want to do. I really want to learn about the broader culture of academia when it comes to this, and librarianship is very female-dominated.

Cheap conference room audio for non-profits

Fnarf — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:13:06 -0800

I need a better audio setup for a projector in a conference room for a non-profit with no budget. Seriously: we're poor. This question has been asked before, a few years ago, but there wasn't enough detail to help me.

We have an adequate projector, but I want to first mount it on the ceiling as a permanent installation, so someone (usually me) doesn't have to set it up every time, and all the cables end up back in the right bag instead of in the trash. I can do that part, and run the video cable down the wall and up to a table where a laptop can be placed.

Audio is a problem though. We have an old Samson wireless mic, with a small Bogen amp, which is underpowered and feeds back, but it works. But we can't run laptop sound. We have to set up a pair of cruddy computer speakers and plug into the headphone jack on the laptop, but the whole setup is cumbersome and unconnected.

We've even had people try to hold the mic up to the laptop speakers, or the phone handset, which makes me cry, and people's ears bleed. We've tried a big satellite conference room phone, but people steal it (anything that's not bolted down disappears within the hour).

What I guess I'm dreaming of is a wireless gizmo that plugs into the laptop headphone jack and connects to the Samson wireless receiver, or equivalent. I've seen cheapo USB transmitter/receiver sets, but I can't guarantee a free USB port on the computer, either -- it's old.

I'm also hampered by the fact that I don't know what the eff I'm doing -- I understand the computer and video end of it, but anything beyond a 1/8" headphone plug on the audio side confuses me -- I look at the specs and see all this "balanced output" and "600 Ohm" and I dunno what that is. I need someone to talk to me like I'm stupid.

And, as I mentioned, we have almost no money for this. In the other thread someone mentioned spending $750, and that's not likely to happen. $150 might fly.

I want YOU to play KSP!

Mike Mongo — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:56:59 -0800

How do I connect with videogame developers in Dallas, TX? In August, an NGO I work with is putting on a conference in Dallas, TX. The group's focus is futuristic and space travel-related. Attendees will be primarily professional scientists, academicians, as well as space geeks, investors and bloggers.

One of the branches of the company has to do with outreach via gaming, and a game jam is being discussed. There is tremendous support throughout the rest of the organization as many members are gamers/have kids who game. Kerbal Space Program is a favorite. Also, of course, EVE. Furthermore, at least one person has an Ouya so that gets mentioned a lot.

I am calling on fellow mefites to suggest gaming organizations or game developing companies—or even individuals—in Dallas that may be interested in participating in a space-themed game jam.

A WebEx is Leaking

nj_subgenius — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 18:39:43 -0800

How to lock down a teleconference to keep out campers, nosy parkers and miscreants? Hello,
My firm engages with a third party which is nearing completion of a huge project. There are a number of performance problems we are sorting out with this other firm as we near completion. Unfortunately, the third party hasn't kept its meeting attendee list up to date for our firm, and the WebEx dial-in and passcode are too well known within my organization. Frequently we have more attendees than invited, which is a bad sign. In addition, this third party had their asses handed to them in a meeting last week, somewhat unaccountably, by our c-level citizens.
In short, I'm concerned that people who were excused from my firm on this project still have easy access to meeting information, including the presentation and audio items. Recently I've realized that rumor control is necessary, but I do not want to use a heavy hand outside of excluding people who are out-of-date. Webex's site is crap to the point of a) only including the people you've invited, or b) authenticating participants. Is there any way short of switching to Skype that we can direct our third part to tweak WebEx appropriately?
Thanks in advance.

Help me not go to Mars and get more candy bars

silly me — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 07:49:45 -0800

Help me eat well during a conference! I'd like tips for food that travels well on airplanes, as well as anything specific to the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in Chicago. Many picky eater details within. I’m headed to a multi-day conference next month at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place (full address: 2233 S Martin Luther King Dr., Chicago, IL 60616). I hate conferences, I hate traveling, I hate staying in hotels, I hate not eating the food I’m used to. What usually ends up happening is that I get sad and homesick and start trying to “comfort” myself by eating readily available junk food, thus triggering a feedback loop of feeling crappy and eating crappy food. This time, I’d like it to be different.

What I normally eat: vast salads, lots of beans, nuts, fresh eggs, corn tortillas and occasional fish. I almost never eat out. I’m ardently against factory farming on ethical grounds, and it would have to be pretty exceptional circumstances for me to eat an egg from a battery hen (for instance). I mention this because it makes ordering in restaurants difficult. If I go with a salad with no animal products, I get a sad little affair that leaves me hungry fifteen minutes after dinner.

I’m wondering what else I can do. Are there any decent grocery stores in walking distance? I’m going on my employer’s dime, and our time there will be pretty tightly controlled, so will probably not have much time to go on food-gathering trips. Being from a small town, I’m also stupid when it comes to “how to take a bus or taxi,” making longer trips to get food somewhat challenging.

And if that’s not an option, are there any types of foods that travel well on planes? Cans of beans are probably out, but I was thinking bags of nuts, free-range meat jerky of some kind…other options? I need something that will fill me up and keep me running but not give me a carb crash. Energy and protein bars of all stripes give me carb crashes. Breakfast is especially challenging. I need something protein-y, and the fruit and bagel options just don't cut it.

What makes a conference memorable and fun?

nathaole — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 08:30:21 -0800

I would like to hear about the little things that really stood out and details you still remember to this day from conferences or conventions in any field. I am planning a small conference for about 110 people in July. This group is a national organization that meets annually in a different city each year.

The planning commitee has collectively ticked all the major boxes and have figured out the big things like budget, venues, catering, website, schedule, speakers, volunteers, and publicity. In the early planning stages, I saw this question, which was very helpful.

Now, I have some wiggle room in the budget, and I'd like to hear about things that have worked well for others to create a relaxed and memorable event with feeling too forced.

Scholar trying to get Chinese visa for academic conference on religion

reverend cuttle — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 11:23:40 -0800

I'm from the U.S. and I've been invited to an academic conference on "Religion in Modern Society" at a university in PRC. I need a visa. I've contracted with a visa agency to submit all the necessary papers for me. The visa agency says I have two options...

1. Tourist Visa - Everyone I know who has gone for similar reasons has done it on a tourist visa, but here is the snag. My own institution (listed as my employer on the visa application) is affiliated with and named for a Protestant denomination, and the Chinese consulate (I think) is requesting a letter from my university containing a list of religion classes I teach (I teach Eastern Religions), and a statement that my trip has nothing to do with my employment teaching religion. Though I will not be advocating any religious perspective, proselytizing, or doing anything other than reading a dry academic paper, I could not get that letter from my dean, since I am not really going purely for tourist reasons.

2. Business Visa - I do have a letter of invitation from the Chinese University that plainly states my purpose for visiting, and could probably meet the requirements of a business visa. But would it stand a good chance of being approved?

I certainly don't want to spend my week in China afraid of being arrested for violating my visa. I also want my visa approved. What sort of visa should I get?

Recommendations for group video conference w/ iOS and Android support?

peripatew — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:14:33 -0800

I'm trying to find a way to have a group video conference between 4-7 people, that allows iOS and Android devices to connect, as well as Mac and PC users. I've found a few BIG companies that offer services like this: BlueJeans and Vidyo for example, but BlueJeans cheapest option starts at $600 per month.

I'm aiming for an environment that would allow me, the host, to control what's displayed. So typical video conference, but they open up the conversation for discussion when the "lecture" phase is over.

Google+ Hangouts is really spotty in terms of reliability. Skype group calling works, but iOS devices convert to audio only once a third person is added to the conversation.

There seems to be a lot of iOS/Android solutions, but they leave out the Mac and PC users. The search terms I'm using just keep coming up with the same results.

I've used iVocalize in the past, and they promise iOS support in the future, but I'm trying to find a workable solution now (their current client is java based), and then I'll scale up to something like BlueJeans on down the line if my project gets to the point where it can support that.

So any recommendations are welcome. Let me know if I need to provide more details, or if my rambling is incoherent.

My end goal, is to faciliate group video conversations for multiple groups. Right now, I'm just trying to figure out one group so I can test the framework that I'm working on.

Looking for Wordpress conference plugin

beagle — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 14:21:59 -0800

I'm organizing a conference which has a Wordpress website. Can anyone recommend a plugin that facilitates easy setup of pages/posts with speaker bios, session descriptions, locations and times, and an attractive auto-generated conference schedule page with links to the bios and session blurbs? This one would appear to do the trick but seems to be defunct in terms of continuing support and upon trial looks like it is incomplete. So not that one.

Experience with Kiddie Corp child care?

medusa — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:23:57 -0800

Do you have experience with Kiddie Corp child care provided at a convention? I'm going to be attending a conference at which child care is available at the convention center, provided by Kiddie Corp. I'm thinking about whether or not to bring my baby with me on the trip and use this service. I'm feeling uncomfortable with the idea of leaving my baby with child care providers I haven't met and for whom I don't have any prior personal recommendations. Something about it strikes me as slightly creepy, like it's some kind of corporatist McDonald's of child care. It may be the Kiddie Corp name, which does not give me the warm fuzzies.

I can't tell how much of this feeling may be driven by sleep deprivation and the fear that my baby will never be ok in my absence ever. The kiddo currently attends a great daycare that everyone loves (including me), and it still took me weeks to adjust to the concept.

I've been unable to find any online reviews of the convention child care services offered by Kiddie Corp. Does anyone have any experience using their service?

So, what is alt.chi?

carter — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 12:16:52 -0800

HCI people: I have an opportunity to think about going to alt.chi next year. From what I can gather, it looks interesting, but also will be expensive to travel to and to attend. So, has anyone been in the past, or actually presented alt.chi papers? Basically, do I spend the Xmas hols thinking about this? It looks like alt.chi papers are scheduled into the main paper tracks - I think? Also it looks as if they are archived in ACM as extended abstracts. But beyond that, it seems murky to me. I know there are conference organizers I can contact, but I'd like to get attendees' (and maybe presenters') perspectives as well. For instance, do people present in alternate formats? - Or are these regular paper panels? Many thanks!

Conference trip - business or pleasure?

problemspace — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 19:32:53 -0800

I'm a Canadian software developer. I'm going to a conference in the US next month, and I'm not sure what to say when they ask if the trip is for business or pleasure. On the one hand, it's not a vacation - I'm going to the conference to improve my professional skills, and to network with other developers.

On the other hand, I'm paying my own way, and I won't be representing my employer at the conference. I won't actually be conducting any business on the trip.

What do you think? Or does it matter if I answer wrong?

To learn from the people around you, you need to know what to ask.

cranberry_nut — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:34:12 -0800

How can we help event attendees show their expertise? I once attended a conference at which, after registering and obtaining a name badge, an attendee could visit a table of buttons/pins and attach them to the badge/badge-holder to demonstrate expertise. There was a button for "lawyer", one for a particular industry certification, and so on and so forth. You'd see people walking around covered in these buttons and discussing their experience with each topic.

Now I help to run conferences in a different industry, and I mentioned this to my boss as we were brainstorming ways for attendees to better understand the skills in the room and kick-start information sharing. He loved it, but he wants more examples/ideas to compare.

So, MeFites: have you ever used/seen a strategy like this? And on the more practical side, do you think pins/buttons are best or would stickers or color-coded ribbons for some reason be better? (Feel free to also provide any thoughts on obtaining all of these buttons/pins/whatevers.)

[Note: conferences will be in the US/UK and will be attended by executive-level folks in the IT branches of large companies with no specific industry focus.]

Help Me Feel More Confident About This Super Long Presentation on Confidence (sorta)

aabbbiee — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:25:20 -0800

A presentation on assertive negotiation and learning confidence: my time slot is twice as long as I expected! Can you help me brainstorm a group activity to break up the time while illustrating the concepts? Do you have any resources to share? My audience will be librarians at a library conference. Librarians are not seen as the most confident of negotiators, especially when dealing with vendor sales reps, who can be slick and hard and tough. My presentation is on becoming more assertive in negotiations over licenses and pricing for library resources.
I submitted a proposal, thinking that it would be 45 minutes to an hour, tops, and I feel that I have that amount of material. But I was accepted for a 90 minute time slot, and that means two things: A) I don't have enough solid background on this topic to talk for 90 minutes about it, and B) the audience is going to need a break in the middle.

A) If you have any suggestions of good resources on building assertiveness or confident negotiation, please share! I have read Getting to Yes and some articles on the subject. Obviously, I am responsible for my own research, but if you have a good source, please let me know!

B) I'd like to set up a group activity to eat up about 15 minutes of time. This would allow people to get up, move around, meet some people, and duck out of the room if necessary, as well as breaking up my long talk. But I'd like them to stay on topic. Even better if the activity was particularly useful or illustrative.
I'd like to stay away from cheesy games or hackneyed business/self-help trends. I specifically do not want to role-play price haggling, which is a standard example of negotiation. I think that is far too simplistic for this.

The catch for the group activity is that I don't know how many people will attend. There is no pre-registration or way to find out an estimate. I'm one of 9 different options in that timeslot. The conference attendance will total about 500. I'm scheduled for a room that can seat from 70-150 (depending on chair arrangement), and it will likely be an audience of between 5 and 50. Those are very different numbers when it comes to group activities, though!

Do you have any good resources on building assertiveness or negotiation to offer?
Can you help me brainstorm a group activity?

where can I pre-present my paper?

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:12:39 -0800

I have to do a 45 minute presentation at a summit next month. I need to give this presentation the practice it deserves. But, everyone is on vacation in England and the school year does not begin until after the summit. I am in England, I have little money, and I really need an audience who know about social enterprise and journalism to tell me what I need to do more clearly for this presentation. can you give me any advice? the conference is in four weeks.

No alcohol at barcamps...

pwnguin — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 13:34:13 -0800

How should I effectively promote a regional barcamp/unconference? My department organizes semi-annual barcamps, partially to build the department and university's brand, partially as cheap training and education for students and staff, and partially to fill out our student worker application queue.

The conference has been performed well in the past, but we have no desire to rest on any laurels. I'd love to see us improve the turnout, fill more session slots, and perhaps most challengingly, improve the diversity of the attendees and speakers. The conference skews heavily male / CS, being an open source oriented tech conference, and it shows in our recruiting and graduation rates as well. I imagine interest in this event is limited to day trip range of about 150 miles, but our outreach in the past has either been extremely local (paper fliers in a couple of buildings) or extremely broad (Twitter). I've been trolling Meetup.com a bit browsing local groups, but I'm not sure about the etiquette for promoting a conference in a group I'm not directly a member of.

Also, I welcome advice on how to explain to freshman what a BarCamp is and is not.

How to un-boring my meetings?

allkindsoftime — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 05:19:01 -0800

What is the most awesome meeting icebreaker / energizer that you have ever heard of and / or participated in? My job has in the last year or so required a lot more time spent as a meeting facilitator. I've found that there are times that you need to kick-off a meeting or session with a fun activity that gets people settled in (icebreaker). Perhaps even more importantly, there are the post-lunch doldrums that I often need to shake people out of with something more exciting than "EVERYBODY STAND UP AND STRETCH!" (energizer)

Icebreaker example: having everyone write 3-5 trivia items about themselves then the rest of the group guesses at who the person in question is. (kinda boring, but its one of the best I've got)

Energizer example: "Lion Hunting" - we all stand up and imitate the motions of picking up our hunting rifle, slinging it on our back, pushing through the bush (getting people to wave their arms in front of them), fording the river (getting people to high-step while holding the imaginary rifle above their head), crouching down when we see the lion, then firing our rifle. The joke is then that we "missed" and have to rush back through all the previous motions in rapid order.

Basically I'm looking for better-than-average, fun but fairly short activities that a group of business persons could engage in during a meeting / conference, with minimal props or pre-preparation needed. Everything I've been finding with google-fu is pretty lame.

What have you?

What off-site professional trainings have you taken that are totally worth it?

schwab — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 10:27:47 -0800

I've taken some great trainings over the past several years and I'm looking for one this year. My company will send me almost anywhere in the US for up to 5 days of training/conference. Where should I go this year? I work in the defense industry and I'm a software engineer by education but my day-to-day is more project management/project engineering (providing resources, tracking status, etc.). I greatly enjoy customer interaction and understanding their needs and how they translate into products we can build.

In the past few years, I've gone to Manager Tools' Effective Manager and Effective Communications conferences, Edward Tufte's One Day Course, and Pragmatic Marketing's Practical Product Management and Requirements that Work classes. None of these have been 100% applicable to my job, but I've picked up skills from each that are helpful and I've enjoyed them all.

So what trainings/conferences have you been to that fit in this arena (or something tangential, I'm good with tangential)? I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, so I'm interested in new things, too!

What's a good yet affordable conference call system, which can hold a conference in which anyone can join by either phone or the internet, as desired?

Nish ton — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 01:20:22 -0800

What is a good conference calling service for use in Canada (Ottawa specifically), which allows people to connect by computer or by phone in a single conference? I'm on a budget too. I am doing some stuff with a local charity, and people have been getting upset recently that we make decisions about important stuff when they are not there - and at the same time it's of course impossible to find a time when everyone will come to the meetings, nevermind a regular time.

So, conference calling to the rescue, right? Well it can help a bit. However I have previously tried to get conference calling on a budget working and never could. There are always sound quality issues, it's too expensive, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.

I need a serviceable system with which I can set up and run a conference call by phone and also, when I choose to, by computer.

Also people should be able to join by phone or pure-internet.

By pure-internet I mean without using the computer with say Skype-out to simply use your computer to connect to the phone system, and thence to my conference call. Just purely over the internet, with no need to go through the telephone network.

This is because there are some people who have high rates on their cell phones, no access to a landline, and also do not have skype-out or similar. So the internet is the only acceptable method of connecting to them.

P.s. google voice has limits in Canada, no incoming calls.

Fashionable meeting room in the City of Lights...

nickrussell — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 08:19:05 -0800

NicheRequestFilter: Planning an event in Paris. Looking to rent a conference room with A/V and catering at a sexy boutique hotel. Ideally in Levallois-Perret or the 8th or 17th; we can cab up to 15 or twenty minutes. We'll be twelve to fifteen people. Merci!

Room sharing at a science conference

captain cosine — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:36:40 -0800

grad students and former grad students/postdocs/academics (or pretty much anyone who has experience going to conferences): trying to figure out if I'm making an unreasonable request about room sharing at a conference, or if colleagues are. I (male) and two female co-lab-members got 3 separate abstracts accepted to a medium sized conference. The other day I emailed them about what we should do for hotel arrangements. So they emailed me back saying they had already booked a room for themselves and said they wouldn't be comfortable sharing a room with a guy. While that is totally understandable, I will end up having to pay around $700 to book my own room for the 3 days of the conference (its downtown in a somewhat-pricey north american city).

I have worked closely with both of them for 2-3 years, and have slept on one of their couches on more than one occasion. This makes me think (and hope) that their concern is not for their safety, since I'm pretty sure we've established a good amount of trust between us. So from my perspective their concern is more for comfort. I've been to several conferences in the past and have had mostly coed room sharing arrangements. Obviously this is not ideal comfort-wise, but its usually done out of financial consideration/necessity since grad students are generally low on funds (myself included). So I was actually a bit taken aback that they had already made arrangements and refused to consider sharing a room with me, a fellow grad student and friend.

What are your experiences with coed room sharing (or non-sharing, as the case may be)? My question is mainly, am I being unreasonable by expecting them to allow to me to share the room? Are they being unreasonable given our shared economic situation? I'm probably not going to try to argue about it, since it seems they've made up their minds and I'll respect that. I just want to know if I need to snap out of it or if I should feel at least justified in being upset about this.

Should I ask my employer to sponsor my attendance at a professional conference?

limon — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:19:34 -0800

As a junior programmer at a tech startup, how do I tactfully approach my employer about sponsoring my attendance at a professional conference? Is that a common request to make? The conference is PyCon and we're a Python shop, so the skills I'd acquire if I were to go would be useful for my work. I'm prepared to pay to attend out of my own pocket, but if it's standard practice to have these sorts of things paid for, than yeah, it'd be nice to save a few hundred dollars. But it's important for me to avoid appearing greedy.

Any advice or comments on jobhunting at science conferences?

metaBugs — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:19:03 -0800

Do any of you have experience with postdoc recruitment at academic conferences (Specifically, BSGT/ESGCT)? I'm trying to decide whether I should pay €600 (plus accommodation and travel) out of my own pocket to attend an academic conference, with the primary aim of job hunting. It's a big chunk of money, but finding a good job would easily be worth it. So I'm looking for information to help work out whether spending the cash is a gamble worth taking.

I think it basically comes down to a question of how useful the job board system is going to be. Does anyone out there have experience using the boards at this conference or a similar one? Do you tend to get lots of positions posted and/or PIs looking at posted CVs? I'm a little concerned, because the societies' websites currently have exactly one job listing, which is interesting but not worth €600 on its own.

More fuzzily, I know people who can probably introduce me to a lot of other lab heads in my field. I only have a poster, which will make it hard to get attention for my work, but it's cool stuff (already presented it orally at another prestigious conference, just got accepted in a good journal) so I should do OK when a conversation gets going. I know networking is useful for collaborations and ideas, but how common is actually getting hired by -- or hiring -- someone met at a conference?

For background, there's a chance that my lab will pay for the conference, in which case I'll definitely go. I'm just trying to settle my thoughts about Plan B in advance.

Short-term house rentail in Montreal!

eagle-bear — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:35:12 -0800

I'm trying to rent a big house in Montreal to accommodate somewhere between 8-12 people this coming November for a conference. Does anyone have any specific experiences or recommendations? We would stay probably for 5-7 days. We're going to be a mix of grad students and maybe a few faculty, so I'm searching for a good mix of affordability and comfort (with space for people to write their papers in their rooms). Thanks in advance!

I want to teach live, online classes

grumblebee — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 07:08:24 -0800

Is it cost-effective (affordable) for a single person to conduct online video training? I looked into this years ago, and the technology existed, but it was really expensive. I don't just mean the video-streaming software; I mean the cost of bandwidth. But I'm now seeing a few individuals -- not big companies -- offer online tutoring for relatively low prices. One guy is teaching an 8-hour programming course and charging people $400 for it.

I'd like to do something similar: I'd like to teach online classes and change students $300 - $500 each, maybe limiting class size to 10 people max, so that I can field questions without being overwhelmed.

I've been looking into options, but I can't quite figure them out. How much would it cost me to stream video (of my desktop) and audio to, say, 5 or 10 people? Would charging them $400 each recoup my expenses? What are other things I should know about doing this (pitfalls, tips, etc.)?

If it matters, I am Mac based and have high-speed (cable) Internet access.