There is more to making presentation and packing your bags for a conference. Here are some tips to get the most out of a conference.

1. Your presentation
Prepare extensively for your presentation. In fact, after giving similar presentations on your research topic, you would still need enough time to give a good presentation.

Who’s your audience:
You should determine beforehand that are you presenting to researchers or people from the industry and from your own field only or different fields?

Requirements:
Always check the guidelines of the organizers before you start making your presentation because your poster size can vary with those of the boards provided by the organizers.

Slides:
Always make clear slides. Don’t write too many sentences on a single slide, make sure the font is large enough and you present your slides in an attractive way.
Practice:
Practice your presentation with some colleagues or friends. Track the time you need for your presentation, and don’t use too many slides.

2. Making Connections

Talk with speakers or persons from the organizing committee, as you can get help from these experts both academically and for career opportunities. I have seen researchers making connections with fellows of different universities and labs and mutually benefiting by the facilities in their labs.

3. Attending sessions

You should decide early which session you would like to attend from the conference schedule. Look for interesting topics and attend a session to broaden your perspective.

4. Prepare for traveling

To avoid getting stressed out right before your journey, make sure to have everything ready, including: travelling tickets, hotel reservation and confirmation of your registration at the conference. Check visa requirements if you’re traveling abroad and all your other important documents. All this should make sure that traveling itself does not take up too much of your energy to avoid that you arrive at the conference exhausted from traveling.

5. Sight Seeing

Apart from attending the conference, if the venue of your conference is a travelling destination, then you should also plan to visit the famous places in that place. You can check the places online which you should visit and plan accordingly.