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[chaud]

-- Respond to a question with 'That's a good point,' when in fact you think it's complete bullsh!t and you should tell us all why.

I prefer to nod a bit and say, "hmmm, okay, well [next point]."

[euro_trash]

I went to a conference last year in Lithuania.  The guy next to me ate a huge bag of pretzels during my paper session.  He had crumbs all over himself.

When I was reading my paper, I glanced over to notice him drinking from my water bottle - I had previously drunk right from it.  It was my water bottle after all.  The guy was really lipping it and everything.  I had to try -really- hard not to laugh. 

[jrscholar]

- Putting too many quotes into their papers, making it difficult to follow when read aloud.

[infopri]

- People who read their papers.*

I can read just fine, thank you.  I want you to present your paper, which means talking to (and, during Q&A, with) the audience, not just reading aloud.

*This is a field-specific complaint.  I know that there are many fields where the norm at conferences is to read the paper.  That is not the norm in my field.  At peer-reviewed conferences, all the papers are published in the proceedings, which are handed out with the nametags, etc., at registration.  The norm for presenters is to present the paper by essentially summarizing its important points, providing an update where appropriate, and then answering questions.


By the way, a shout-out to my grad-school professors, who always made (and still make) it a point at conferences to introduce graduate students to all the big names in the field and who often encouraged their student co-authors to present the papers.

[jackit]

...

By the way, a shout-out to my grad-school professors, who always made (and still make) it a point at conferences to introduce graduate students to all the big names in the field and who often encouraged their student co-authors to present the papers.

Awesome.  I sometimes do this, but not nearly enough.

[johnr]

I can't stand it when people insist on having long and LOUD conversations in the hallway right next to an ongoing session. It does help a tiny bit if we shut the door (you think that that would give you a hint!), but every thirty seconds someone comes in late, or leaves early, and those people leave the door open (which I also can't stand) and so we're treated to the ebb and flow of you wonderful conversation for the entire twenty minute presentation. 

[navelgazer]

- Kicking me in the middle of the night because we're sharing four to a room.
- Getting up at 6am (loudly) and/or getting up at noon and being annoyed that the rest of us need to dress.

So happy to have a travel budget next year! And a job!

[starfleet_grad]

--After panel presentations, audiences that fawn over one presenter and make the other two feel like complete losers.

--Promise to show up for someone's presentation and then don't.

--General sessions that consist of a couple of hours of the organizers' congratulating themselves for a job well done: "And our special thanks to Marcia for providing the chocolate chip cookies. Come on up Marcia, for your certificate. Let's give Marcia a hand. Those cookies were delicious. This conference wouldn't be the same without Marcia blah blah blah." Recognizing people is one thing, but don't go overboard.

[concordancia]

Acting like you don't really know grad students from your institution because you're so busy networking with bigger fish (and it doesn't occur to you that the grad students need to know these people too).

A prof left our school just as my year was starting. I have stood in the same group with him talking to other grad students or profs who stayed with the program or even other profs from our university (interestingly enough, I have never come across him talking to anyone NOT from our university). He has never acknowledged my presence. I have decided that while he probably doesn't know my name, he must remember me in some form. And probably decided at that time that I wasn't worth paying attention to. Well ha to him, I am the one with national fellowships on my CV and I managed to finish my diss and publish the book before anyone else in that year even finished their diss.

[dr_stones]

#1: Overanalyzing student and colleague behavior at conferences.

[drspouse]

---and, my favorite and staple of the AHA and OAH: "the eye slide."  The glance at the name tag and if the person doesn't appear to be important enough, the "eyes slide on to the next target."  (term courtesy of an old grad school friend)

I just got this at a conference - from someone who used to employ me.  She is notoriously weird, fired three people (including me) in my time there (a couple of months), and I have changed since working for her, but even so! Thankfully I didn't really care to be acknowledged by her anyway.

[larryc]

Organizers who accept all-grad student panels. These are common at regional and smaller conferences. They are usually poor panels because none of the participants really knows how to deliver a presentation and the work is often not very mature. Even worse it deprives the grad students from the opportunity to be on a panel with more seasoned folks, who can (theoretically!) model good delivery and who can serve as a future network.

[minor_t]

Anyone who starts by saying, "I'll be brief."  People who say that are never brief.  if they really wanted to be brief, they'd cut extraneous sentences such as "I'll be brief."

[poll_grad]

--Promise to show up for someone's presentation and then don't.

And blame it on being hung over.  Come on, you're old enough to drink, have a Ph.D., and be a professor.  Surely you can suck it up and get to panels at 10am. I would have made it to yours if I'd promised I would.  (Not that it really matters that much in the long run, but it's still annoying.)

[canadatourismguy]

Added to the 'eye slide' are those who ignore graduate and undergraduate students because they are unimportant at conferences.  Those students are eventually going to be your colleagues one day...

My pet peeves:

Conferences where the keynote is doing a rehash presentation;
Conferences where the cliques are so apparent, that no newcomer feels welcome;
Conferences that just turn into brag-fests;
Conferences where the hotel costs more than a small fortune given the current state of academic funding.  It ends up coming out of our pockets!
Finally, conferences where the organization is poor.  People think putting together these thing is easy.  It just takes a lot of organization and follow up (yeah right!).  If you are going to bid to host, be willing to put in the work and the resources to make it a success if you win.  I am spending a lot of my travel budget to come and you insult me if you do it half way. 

CTG