A Guide to: Conferences (and how to organise them) II

In my last blog post I spoke about why universities host conferences and what they’re useful for. I also discussed how to come up with conference themes, and what to consider when thinking about scope (which texts? Which time period?). I spoke about all this in relation to a conference I ran recently here at HHU, ‘Morality, Exemplarity, and Emotion in Medieval Insular Texts, c. 700-1500’; today, I’ll talk about how this conference went, the more practical side of running a conference, and some tips and tricks for ensuring things run smoothly.

Put briefly, the conference went well (hooray!). The papers engaged productively with each other in terms of topic, theme, and/or methodology, there were plenty of questions for the speakers, and collectively there emerged recurring themes and questions which sparked discussion among attendees and speakers alike. Better yet, there were no technical glitches (the conference was online). So, how can you ensure a conference runs smoothly? What are the practicalities? First of all – conferences take time to plan and prepare. Make sure to circulate your cfp (call for papers) at least three months before the submission deadline for abstracts. In turn, this deadline ought to be at least 3 months before the conference itself (you will need to advertise the conference dates on your cfp also). This length of time between the abstract deadline and the conference itself ensures that a) you have enough time to sort through the abstracts and accept (or reject) those who submitted them, and organise the venue/catering and, b) that the delegates themselves have enough notice to book travel and accommodation. Typically, you want potential speakers to submit a 150-200 word abstract detailing what they will discuss in their paper – it is your job to then determine which abstracts best adhere to the conference theme(s) and which best complement each other, so you can sort them into panels. For my conference I arranged 3 panels on each of the two days; each panel contained 3 speakers, who spoke for 20 minutes each, with 30 minutes left at the end for questions. (Download the program and see the arrangement.) If you want to invite a keynote speaker (a good idea!) then I would suggest contacting them before circulating your cfp – that way, you can include their name on your cfp and more people will be encouraged to submit abstracts. A keynote speaker should ideally be someone who has published a lot in the area that your conference explores: for my conference, I invited Dr Alice Jorgensen from Trinity College Dublin, who has published extensively on Old English emotions, and also Prof. Mary Flannery from the University of Bern, who has written a fantastic book on shame in Middle English and is currently working on obscenity.

Secondly, if you plan to host a conference in person, they can be expensive (think catering, venues, a wine reception, travel expenses for keynote speakers, conference packs), so you will need funding, either from your Institute or in the form of an external grant from a funding body. Once you have your conference budget, you can search for suitable venues within your budget. Venues will usually be able to provide catering, so you can price accordingly. The conference I ran was initially planned as in-person at Schloss Mickeln: I would have been lost at sea without our secretary, Frau Eva-Maria Dahlhoff, who liaised with the venue and organised all the catering (thank you, Eva!). Pro tip – make sure you take note of the last day you can cancel to receive a full refund! Once the important stuff is taken care of (venue, catering, keynote travel and accommodation, conference packs), you can plan for some ‘extras’, if the budget allows, like a wine reception. A good tip is to also plan free things to do: you could suggest a ‘meet and greet’ in a bar the night before the conference, so delegates can break the ice in a more informal setting; you could go to local tourist offices and ask for leaflets to include in the conference packs; you could see if there are any free tours of places of interest (again, play to the theme of your conference – if medieval, perhaps see if you could bring your delegates on a tour of a local medieval building); and delegates will usually expect a conference dinner – you don’t have to pay for this (phew) but don’t forget to book a venue, ideally one which has vegetarian/vegan options. If your conference is online, make sure to set up online registration (I used Eventbrite), advertise the conference on social media, and don’t forget to email the link (with password!) to delegates and attendees in advance. Expect to spend a lot of your time emailing people who have last-minute questions! Help here is also vital and thankfully one of our very own Anglistik 1 students, Katharina Nagel, took charge of admitting people to the Zoom room and answering questions.

Well, it seems I have a lot to say about conferences but I’ll leave it here for now.  Stay tuned for my next blog post, where I might get back to chatting about emotional saints.