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[mkclinger49]

Hello good people!
How do you all value international conferences? After being accepted to a good sized conference outside of the US (my home base), but receiving little funding to attend...I wonder will it be worth while to sink a good deal of my own money into making the long (and need I say expensive) trip? Does it make a big difference on the CV? What are the pros/cons?

Thank you ahead of time for the input.

[koda_kube]

Interesting Question! 

For example in my field Biogeochemistry I would ensure that I had attendance at the National AGU, ASA/SSSA and ESA meetings but I also like to attend Biogeomon and Acid Rain conferences that can be held anywhere in the world.  I do not view the latter as 'international' but as a need to meet with internationally based colleagues that would not typically attend US national conferences.

As a SC member and having just waded through 15 or so CV's I confess I was more interested in papers published in relation to date of degree, grant funding and teaching than looking at the number of international conferences attended.

My advice is then that unless you have collaborators or contacts also attending the international conference that you can network with and the result of the visit can be grants written or papers published then I really do not think it will enhance your CV. 

Other fields may have a different perspective - I'll be interested to hear them!

[donstefano]

probably depends on the discipline. In social sciences and humanities I think it is a must, because it shows you what other ways of looking at a problem exist. In my discipline, there are clear regional schools of thought, so not leaving my own country would not have made me the scholar I am now.


The US market is quite large, so there may be an argument not to go to international conferences. In smaller countries, not doing so would be regarded as parochialism - or at least I regard it as such. And that includes my current academic home, the UK, where some still appear to believe they are the greatest nation on earth yet are in fact incredibly parochialist. In the US, given the mere size of academia, I think you can get away with it, but exposure to a variety of groups and meeting is important

[polly_mer]

I think the relevant question is "Is this a prime conference in your field that people generally attend?"

Merely being international is not necessarily important to your CV.   

However, if this conference gathers all the international biggies in your field or is extremely prestigious because of the selection criteria, you should go give a great talk and take the opportunity to network.

If it's just a decent conference that happens to be held somewhere else, go ahead and skip it.

Of course, this assumes that your CV already has several conference talks from a variety of venues.  If this will make the difference between two conference talks and three conference talks, you should go.  If this will be entry 16, it's not likely to enhance your CV unless it is a fabulously prestigious conference.

[sciencephd]

In general, I would put exactly the same "value" on an international conference as one in the USA, assuming that all other things are equal.  Of course the cost isn't equal. If I had X amount of money and had to choose between 1 international conference in a year versus 2 conferences in the US, I would choose to attend two conferences in the US. 

[legus]

Ditto polly_mer :  it depends on the field and the reputation of the conference in that field. In my field there are plenty of international conferences that are actually held in the US.  I'll go to the one in Chicago in April, there will be folks from all over the world including: Canada, Brazil, most EU countries, Israel, Australia, China, Korea, and former Soviet Union.

[polly_mer]

Ditto polly_mer :  it depends on the field and the reputation of the conference in that field. In my field there are plenty of international conferences that are actually held in the US.   

Yep.  The American Physical Society March Meeting draws from all over the world and actually has reciprocity agreements with several other national and regional societies to ensure that the best people, where ever they are, will be inclined to come.

[euro_trash]

Non-US conferences are often the only conferences I can attend for many reasons.  I think attending quality conferences is important.  I would rather attend a decent conference in Spain than a mediocre cattle conference in Palm Springs.  I think one advantage of attending international conferences is that it shows that one is engaged in academic issues outside of one's native country.  This can make applicants (in the humanities at least) appear much more diverse and open to international developments, which is a plus IMHO.

[sir_lancelot]

I would hope that most of your conferences are "international" in the sense that they draw a crowd of international leaders in your field. Where it is held is really secondary. In my field it just happens that many of the international conferences that are interesting for me are in the US anyway. I make it a point to attend the occasional international conference in Europe or in Asia, but I pick only those with a high scientific value.

[expatinuk]

One thing that is VERY important... if you do go to an international conference... interact with folks outside of the US (or your home country).

[galactic_hedgehog]

Ditto polly_mer :  it depends on the field and the reputation of the conference in that field. In my field there are plenty of international conferences that are actually held in the US.   

Yep.  The American Physical Society March Meeting draws from all over the world and actually has reciprocity agreements with several other national and regional societies to ensure that the best people, where ever they are, will be inclined to come.

Double ditto (AGU).  As for meetings overseas, in my field a lot of the time the questions include:

"Who else is going to be there?" especially for smaller meetings.  Good keynote speakers help to set the stage for interesting discussions and possible future collaborations.

"Is it in an interesting area?"  For geosciences, are there good examples of the phenomena in question around?  A neat volcano?  Famous outcrops?  The uplifted Moho?  Or, at the very least, good breweries and/or wineries.

[mkclinger49]

Many thanks to you all for the feedback. I applied because the conference theme and topic were central to my work, but its only the "big" conference for UK/Aus not necessarily for the US folks. You guys confirmed my hunch that it may not be the right choice for me.
best,
mk

[dyst_uk]

By UK/Aus do you mean UK and Australia (which will probably mean it spreads to include NZ and the rest of Oceania), or UK and Austria (i.e. Europe)?

[mkclinger49]

Its a joint conference with the UK (and Europeans) based group joining the Australian (NZ included in this) group. This (I think) is the first year they've teamed up and its should be a reach a range of individuals outside of the US. Another sang (I failed to mention earlier) in addition to raising the funds to go, is that it falls during my semester and it will take some serious favors to get my classes covered.