Rules for professional traveling and attending conferences

Golden rule: attending a conference is a privilege and not a vacation.

When supported, entirely or partially, by the lab to attend a conference, you are required to closely follow the rules below. If you know that you cannot respect any of these rules, then you have to discuss the matter with me PRIOR to agreeing to take the trip. Otherwise, any failure to FULLY fulfill any of these rules will result in the NON reimbursement (entirely or partially) of your expenses to the trip and may also affect your graduation.

Travel:

• You must arrive BEFORE the beginning of the conference.


• You may NOT leave before the official end of the conference.


• You must be on-site during the entire duration of the conference.


• You may NOT miss any session for any reason unless you clearly discuss it with me.


• You may choose to take a vacation before or after the conference, however, you are NOT allowed to carry any private visits/activities during the technical program of the conference.

Choosing sessions to attend:

• Attend as many tutorials as you can. They are a wonderful opportunity to strengthen your knowledge or, better, learn about areas you have no knowledge about.


• As soon as you have received the program of the conference, and at the latest, the evening of the day before a conference, you must carefully choose the talks you are going to attend the following day. This can be done as follows. You look at the program. Check the titles of the most appealing talks. You also check whether any two of the talks you are interested in are scheduled in parallel. Then, you read, in the proceedings, AT LEAST the abstract and the conclusion of the paper you have chosen. If it is interesting, try to read even more so you can ask useful questions to the speaker. Choose between alternative sessions by preferring the talk you have the least knowledge about so you can gain from listening to the speaker.


• In case there are time periods with no talks of interest to you, then attend invited/keynote talks, they are often inspirational.


• In general, you want to sleep early and avoid partying before or during the conference. A conference can be very tiring, do not overestimate your energies.

After returning from a conference:

• Review the notes you have taken.


• Talk to colleagues/advisor about what you have learned and what inspired you most.


• Follow up with the people you have met at the conference with questions, pointers, or documents.

Again, a conference is not a vacation. If you fail to show up at the event you have registered for or if you decide to leave the conference before it ends, then you'll be asked to pay back all or some of your expenses, and your graduation is at stakes. If you have questions, please discuss them with me ASAP, before it is too late.