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Beyond the Nametags:
A Thoughtful Approach to
Hosting a Conference
George M. Slavich
Stanford University
Eye on Psi Chi
Conferences are where psychology comes
alive. They are the breeding grounds for intellectualism, the birthplace
of collaborations, and the source of motivation to perform interesting
research. I realized this last year while making the conference rounds,
and since then, I have been experiencing an intense desire to introduce
other budding psychologists to the magic that conferences possess.
Although I am not a professional conference
planner by any stretch of the imagination, my attempt at founding the
first ever undergraduate psychology research conference at Stanford has
provided me with some insight on how to approach such an endeavor. The
purpose of this article is thus to impart unto you some of what I have
learned from my experience.
There are a number of logistical decisions
that need to be made when planning a conference, from whether to host
paper or poster sessions (or both), to the color of the nametags. Those
are the things I am not going to address. Instead, I would like to discuss
some of the higher-order issues to consider. Let's
begin.
Don’t Wait. I cannot stress enough
the importance of starting early. I began thinking about what I wanted the
conference to look like a whole year in advance, and we are still not
ahead of the game. Brainstorming, revising, and implementing the best
ideas can consume a lot of time. The more time you give yourself to
sharpen and re-sharpen your ideas, the better your final product will be.
Leveraging Power. Your first job as
conference director should be to select one or two faculty advisors.
Beyond being able to offer guidance based on years of personal experience,
a helpful advisor will act on your behalf to generate support for the
conference in your department.
I guarantee that some faculty members will
be skeptical of your sizable endeavor. By dropping your advisors’ names,
you should have little problem winning over those who are suspicious. We
are fortunate to have two incredibly helpful advisors: James J. Gross and
Philip G. Zimbardo. You should aim for the same.
Dream Staff. Selecting the
co-directors for the conference
is probably one of the most important
decisions you will make. Be sure to select individuals who are excited
about psychology, who are reliable, and who will be willing to put in the
necessary time. Sometimes, people will try to convince you that they are
perfect for the job when, in truth, they are a poor fit. In these
instances, use your best judgment and choose carefully.
What’s My Name Again? When selecting
the conference job titles for you and your co-founders, make sure to
choose titles that are empowering, not petty. Director, Marketing and
Communication, for example, is much better than Assistant Coordinator. In
general, the titles should suggest importance and independence. They
should also be titles that you could proudly put on your resume.
Exponential Marketing. Snail mail is
costly, cumbersome, and unlikely to be distributed beyond the person to
whom you are sending your material. In contrast, email is inexpensive,
simple, and, if you ask properly, likely to be widely distributed. After
five days of marketing, we sent out 240 emails, but received more than
1,070 unique hits on our website. You do the math.
Social Entrepreneurship. This is
your chance to think outside the bubble. When identifying the people you
want to benefit, look beyond just undergraduate psychology students. Use
the conference as an opportunity to touch the lives of less fortunate
individuals in your community. We have chosen to donate our proceeds to a
class of underprivileged high school students studying psychology, but one
could think of many other worthy causes.
So far, I have painted a rather pretty
picture of what it means to host a research conference. Hosting a
conference, however, is by no means an easy task, complicated by a number
of obstacles that will surely arise. Let me give you the partial skinny on
what you can expect.
You will wonder whether hosting a
conference is the "right" thing to do, your co-directors will miss
deadlines, financial funding will be tight, at least one faculty member
will say you’re wasting your time, and you will constantly worry about
whether anyone will attend. During these difficult times, sit back, relax
for a moment, and reflect upon the following slice of wisdom: Life’s
riptides are nothing more than action potentials. When you are done
reflecting, get back to work.
It is the fundamental nature of a scientist
to do things differently than those who have come before. Hosting the
first ever Stanford Undergraduate Psychology Conference is my way of
staying true to that nature. It is also my way of making sure that
psychology continues to come alive.
If this goal resonates with you, I strongly
urge you to consider hosting your own conference. And if you end up
deciding to do so, I wish you the best of luck.
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George M. Slavich, Founder and Executive
Director of the First Annual Stanford Undergraduate Psychology Conference,
is currently a coterminal master’s student in psychology and a terminal
master’s student in communication at Stanford University. Slavich is
Co-President of the Stanford chapter of Psi Chi, a member of the
Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects at Stanford, and has served
as a lecturer and teaching assistant for a number of classes in Stanford’s
Department of Psychology. His primary line of research investigates the
role that stressful life events and cognitive biases play in the genesis
and maintenance of major depressive disorder. Slavich has also spent time
researching aschematic perception, violations of expectation, persuasive
computing, and cultural influences on, and responses to, television.
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Citation |
| Slavich, G. M.
(2001, Spring). Beyond the Nametags: A thoughtful approach to hosting a
conference. Eye on Psi Chi, 5, 47. |
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