How to Make the Most of an Academic Conference

“At the first scholarly conference I ever attended, the going rate for speaking was $2,000. That wasn’t my fee. It was how much it cost me — as a then-graduate student — to give a 15-minute presentation on my research at the premier conference in my field. The economics were sobering: I had spent two grand of my own money — on hotel, airfare, meals, cabs, conference fees — to stand at a lectern and read a six-page essay, at the end of which someone yelled, “Time!” How could anyone, I wondered, justify such a small return on such a large investment? Was it even worth it for me to attend? And who pays $9 (well, it seemed like a lot then) for a hotel-kitchen tuna-salad sandwich?”