Whether large-scale or small, international or local, your first academic conference is always a nerve-wracking experience. Conferences are great places to present research and meet other scholars, but to get the most out of these events, it helps to start preparing early, ideally as soon as your abstract is accepted. Some PhD students might be fortunate enough to attend their first conference with someone they know, a colleague, co-worker, or their supervisor. But what do you do when you don’t have that support? How do you navigate your first conference on your own? As members of the British International Studies Association (BISA) Postgraduate Network (PGN) committee, we have written this article to share practical advice on how to prepare for, and what to expect at, a conference, symposium, workshop, or other academic event. Our network facilitates monthly events and a yearly conference for PhD students and early career researchers (ECRs) interested in international studies and politics, the latter of which is a fantastic space to present your own work and connect with other scholars at the forefront of their careers.

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Choosing the right conference

Applying for a conference early is important: it enables you to find the most appropriate event to present your research and network at - which is imperative in a time of limited funding - and to decide what your expectations of this conference are. The best way of deciding which conferences might be most relevant to your research is simple: look at your own bibliography. Which journals appear repeatedly? Which scholars do you keep citing? Where do those scholars present their work, and which academic associations or specialist groups are they part of? By looking at the scholars and journals that appeared most frequently in our own research, the four of us, coming from different fields of International Studies and different universities, were led to the same place, BISA. We are now involved in the BISA PGN committee and aim to attend the conference every year. Asking yourself where the academic community you want to be part of is debating the most relevant issues is the best way to start selecting relevant conferences.

Before submitting your application, it is also worthwhile thinking about what you expect to get out of that conference. PhDs often treat conference attendance as a necessary academic step without considering what would make it useful for their research. Expectations might differ from event to event: at smaller (often discipline-specific) conferences you may want to refine a specific research idea, or get specific feedback on a paper draft from researchers within your field who are knowledgeable on your subject matter. At larger conferences (like BISA, for example), you may want to practise your presentation skills or simply meet new people and fellow researchers outside of your field of study.

The main objective of IR PhD students is often to leave a conference with something useful: a clearer argument, a new perspective, relevant contacts, or a better sense of what to do next. This means understanding both what is expected of us at a conference and what we want to gain.

Given the financial cost of conferences, you need to bring work an audience can meaningfully engage with. Choose something you can present in ten minutes and identify where you need help. Unfinished work can generate valuable feedback, but it still needs a clear question, approach, emerging findings, and an explanation of what remains unresolved.

For IR researchers,........

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