Why should academicians attend international conferences?

International Academic conferences are much popular nowadays. Normally, a well-established academician receives more than 10 invitations to international conferences per week. However, through getting know the reasons behind attending a conference, you will be able to plan your career development and establish a personal brand in the particular academic field in which you are engaged. Once you decide to attend a conference, it is of paramount importance to select an appropriate academic conference among hundreds of others. Afterwards, you can send your research paper and apply for funds. Anyhow, the first and foremost step is to get to know the underlying reasons for attending an academic conference. Following guidelines will help you to decide why you need to attend academic conferences.

Network, Network, and Network

Building the academic and professional network is the main reason for academicians to attend a conference. When it comes to an international conference, it is a forum where people from different parts of the world gather for the purpose of knowledge transferring. These individuals ranges from students to world-famous GURUs in that particular field of study. Also, industry experts, Policymakers, Independent researchers and General Public attend conferences. We would never know who will be meeting at the conference and how that can become a turning point in your life. These gatherings will provide you the opportunity to enter into discussions for future work, form partnerships among institutions, find your next colleague to do a research and plan next international tour. If you are attending a conference please choose a conference with more networking opportunities and go through our article regarding how to enhance your networking opportunities in the conference.

Suggestions for current research

If you need a precise idea about your ongoing research you can get plenty of suggestions and information through the conference you attending. You can obtain suggestions from high academic profiles, policymakers and industry experts in your field of study uplift your research into a more practical base.

Suggestions for future research

Discussing with other scholars, academics and peers may widen your scope. You may be enlightened with some novel ideas and that can change how you are going to carry out future research. You can easily discuss and identify trends and upcoming areas of subject to plan your future academic work. Since you meet people from other countries, you can know how research is carried out in other countries.

Joint researches /Joint papers

It’s always better to have a well-recognized international team to do researches. You can get to know talented personnel who may become your next co-author. Furthermore, you may be invited by others in the same field to join their research. For example, if your study is on Agricultural Economics where you have majored in Economics, but not in Agriculture; the conference you attend will be a helpful venue to find a proper scholar in the field of Agriculture.

Easy publication

Most of the conferences offer different kinds of publication opportunities. You can choose a quality publication option from a good conference. We recommend you to carefully go through the conference website and publication page to access information. Some conferences work with world-renowned publication houses, offer their own journals and conference proceedings. Anyhow, do not miss to check whether they have ISBN, ISSN numbers, DOI, online publication system and quality reviewing process. Moreover, check their credibility by checking previous publications and reviews. Conference organizing bodies such as TIIKM offers publication options with quality double-blind reviewing, DOI, ISSN, online publication, and journals with proper indexing. However, publishing your research paper in an academic conference is typically of low cost. Make sure that you choose conferences with quality and reliable publication opportunities.

Publication helps

Many academics obtain help for their publication from each other. You can get done a proper proofreading or obtain expert view from different perspectives which would help to publish a high quality paper. Moreover, people with publication knowledge like journal editors, scholars who work as reviewers may attend the conference. Even one or two tips from them would help you to publish your paper in a well-reputed journal. Some of the conferences TIIKM conferences include publication workshops which are conducted by high profiled editors. So, it is worth more than millions to attend such conferences.

Apply for grants and jobs

You may even get to know about job opportunities while in the conference. All you need is to network with the correct people. You may be seen as the best person to take part of in an ongoing research in your area. Someone might offer you such opportunities, it can be local or foreign. Further, industry representatives and policymakers may find your research interesting; through these also new avenues will open for you with regard to career development. They may even agree to fund your next research.

Recognition in the fields
Building a good network will help you to get recognition in your field. More people will get to know about you and your expertise. Higher the recognition, higher the opportunities. I have seen lots of good academicians who make use of conferences very well for networking. They focus on their future and they become more recognized among academic communities over the time.

More memories for life

What you are doing and People you meet at the conference will make good memories which will last for a lifetime. Travelling to a different country or a different part of the country and working with well-established people will fill your life with great memories. After the conference, you will have friends in different part of the world. Do not miss the invitations that they made you come and visit them.

Break the ice and phobia – Confidence building

If you are an undergraduate, post graduate student or a Ph.D. student you may still have some fear to present/talk in front of a gathering. Hence, attending a conference will break the ice and phobia to present and interact with a group of people. Positive or negative, every comment will make you feel stronger and feel more important among others. Even being in different places, different countries and interacting with different cultures may train your vision to see things in different angles and perspective.

Since you receive a package of obvious benefits through an international conference by now you will be definitely thinking of attending a conference at least once a year. What do you think about attending international conferences, please share your thoughts, experiences and ideas with us. Good luck with your next conference.

Authors
Duminda Koralagamage
Duminda0728@gmail.com
Yasodara Pemarathne
yasodarapemarathne@gmail.com