Today, only few people attached great importance to a variety of student conferences, seminars, meetings, etc. But their importance cannot be overstated, as these are forms of work, during which students can share their ideas and scientific developments, listen to presentations of their teachers and specialists in the field on the workshop issue, to express its point of view on an issue .
But to make a conference or seminar bring the expected results, you need to know how to organize such events:
- To find a large room, where all the participants of the conference will accommodate free. A large audience at a university or a hall for special meetings is acceptable.
- An important step is the exact formulation of the conference themes. On the one hand, it must not concern the very narrow specialization, because not everyone can have a good understanding in the subject and hold a discussion. On the other hand, the subject should not be vague and include a very broad range of issues, as the discussion could last forever. The theme is also the goal of the conference – as a rule, it is a solution to a problem, an attempt to draw the attention of the public and students in this or that phenomenon, etc.
- Having defined the theme of the conference, it is necessary to make a list of all who will report on the topic, as well as a sample list of invitees. It is desirable for the report to invite scholars from various fields who can provide a comprehensive understanding of the topic or phenomenon, to make students think. All invited are important to familiarize with the rules and just prior to the conference to clarify whether they will attend.
- Important role is played by organizational issues – speakers should know their turn of speaking, do not push to the department and not to delay the report. The organizer must be familiar with the subject of the report in order to properly determine the order of speakers with the purpose of deepen the topic and organize all the information. If the theme of the conference is related to any burning questions (for example, environmental problems and environmental assessment of recent negative phenomena among young people, need to turn the public’s attention to a particular problem, etc.), it is desirable to make room in the respective style. A variety of materials, videos and photographs, which will help to better understand the subject matter and the issue and make everyone think about this or that issue, are appropriate.
- Be sure to give everyone among present persons information package, list of speakers, issues addressed, additional materials, etc. This will enable even for the latecomers to be aware of what is happening. Often at student conferences the youth media, which also need to be given all the material on the issue and try to be covered the most complete and accessible picture of the situation, is invited – because journalists can be unaware in the matter.
Let’s consider some situations.
Situation 1. Conference topics are of your interest. If you find that the topics are highly relevant to your specialty in which you learn, or you just interest in hearing the alleged reports, try to get as close to the rostrum, where the reports will be off. If in the audience, where the conference is held, there is no rostrum, most of all, the reports will be off from the right place. It would be nice to record the key aspects of reports. This should be done in order to on the basis of own records you can further understand what was being said. Therefore, if you do a brief summary of each presentation, the bottom line you will have a general plan of papers which were presented. Taking an active part in such conferences (not just as a listener, but as a speaker, provided that this is really interesting), you expand your horizons, become more versatile personality and thus grow as a person rapidly.
Situation 2. You are not interested in scientific conference. If you are led to a scientific conference by force and you do not care what is happening, then, best of all, do not waste your time for nothing, looking out the window, but try to do useful things. So, almost every student has a mountain of cases that are resolved in an emergency mode (usual state for most students, although it is not productive).
Things to do at the conference, if you are not interested in it:
à Rewrite your notes. Almost every student has a problem such as blank spaces in a notebook left by notes that “we need someday to rewrite.” So it is that time – “someday.” Agree than just sit around and do nothing, it is better to do useful work. In addition, you will give the impression that you are supposed diligently record the presentations.
à Make a plan for the coming week. No one will interfere while you are thinking carefully about what and when to engage in the coming week. Planning does increase your productivity.
à Read a book. You have an hour and a half left, so that you can read in that time quite a large amount of text. And you are likely to get more useful information from the book, than if you force yourself to listen to the reports of scientists and still did not understand from what was heard.
In any case conferences provide an opportunity to learn new information, regardless of the reason of their visit. But remember that the more scientific conferences you attend, the greater the likelihood that you will witness the opening of the world!
