How to find a conference in your field

We all know what it’s like to try and find conferences in our research discipline, field of study or professional practice, it’s like searching for a needle in a haystack. Trying to find an event by searching on the web will take you away from your work, and as with any internet search, you can become easily side tracked and end up looking at things you did not set out to look at in the first place.

However, finding conferences so you can disseminate the findings of your work or hear about new work in your field, is important and it’s something that every academic, researcher or person interested in sharing their work needs to do. We are reminded of one encounter we had with a conference delegate that highlights just how important this is.

We were invited to speak at a large health conference and share details of our services at a stand for delegates to visit between talks and during the breakout sessions. David, a researcher from the South of England in the UK, approached our stand and told us just why we were the service he had been waiting for. He had missed out on an important event the year before and was disappointed because none of his peers had told him about it. They naturally assumed that he knew about it and had already booked a place, but he had been away on holiday and the details were shared verbally in a team meeting. When he tried to book place, it was too late – it was oversubscribed, and he was unable to attend.

Failing to attend the conference was disappointing because he missed out on hearing about new information that could assist him in his professional practice and career development, but it was also disappointing because he missed out on the opportunity to meet and connect with new professionals and spend time with his colleagues from across the country – many of whom he only met in person once or twice a year.

As David was talking to us he took out his phone and signed up to Event Central there and then – setting up alerts for a number of search terms so he would never miss out on another event again.

Finding a conference in your field has been made easy with the introduction of Event Central – a site that allows you to search by keyword, country and date range. With hundreds of conferences listed on the site, there are very few that are not listed, so going to this one site and creating an alert will ensure you never miss a conference again.

To find a conference:

1. Make a note of all the possible search terms that fit your interest area(s).
2. Enter them in the search field at Event Central – adding date and location details if you wish.
3. On the results page you can amend the search criteria – either narrow it or broaden it by changing the date range, location or search term.
4. When you click on an event you like, you can share it to social media, email it to yourself or email it to colleges. You can also email the conference organiser directly and go straight to their webpage for further details, such as abstract submission deadlines and booking processes.
5. To save you having to repeat the search – set an alert based on the search. You will need to sign up, either through the traditional email/password and then email verification process, but you can do this quickly and easily through a link with your Facebook, Google or LinkedIn account – don’t worry, we don’t post anything to your accounts and your log in details remain safe.

There are over 1000 conferences, webinars, business networking events, expos and other events listed at Event Central, so happy searching!

Image courtesy of Marten Newhall