3 Things I have learned as organizer of an academic conference

As you may know, my trainees and I are in the middle of organizing an epic neurostimulation conference right here at UNC in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (registration will open very soon - come join us!). It is so interesting to "be on the other side" as the organizers. Here are some things I have learned and observed:

• Making a conference family friendly in the sense that parents receive the support they need to be able to attend is tricky but there are great people that can help. Some of it is legal stuff. For example, we want to offer childcare such that mothers/fathers who have to/would like to take their kids along can also attend. However, given how liability works in this country, at least as a university, this seems to be near impossible. But then I am learning that there are other great approaches, as for example provide financial support for qualifying attendees (financial threshold, childcare needs etc) to help with additional childcare cost caused by attending the meeting. I have learned a lot from the UNC Women Center, who has been extremely supportive. I am quite sure most universities have something like that. Go and talk with them if you are organizing an event! Small but important steps towards improving a situation that direly needs change.
• Corporate Sponsors. There are clear guidelines for how vendors can be present on campus (quite straightforward, really). However, what surprised me was how many companies requested a speaker slot. I am puzzled by this for companies who sell research products and have supported many such meetings before ours. The only conclusion I have is that likely other meetings agree to such deals? For me, that would be a clear conflict of interest (COI)! We will continue to ensure that the firewall between financial supporters and academic content is in place. What lifted my spirits was one specific company that wanted to discuss with me in detail all the potential COIs since they only want to support "clean" meetings. Awesome!
• How to turn down an invitation to be a speaker. I understand that nobody can accept all invitations, I have also reached the point at which I am not able to accept all invitations. One thing that I found was particularly inspiring was that some invitees who had to turn down their invitation made a strong pitch for one of their trainees. That is the spirit! I realized I should try to do this more often, myself. Great way to give a trainee a career boost. While the numbers are far too small to make any statistically significant claim, I just want to share with you my observation that all the answers "I highly recommend my trainee, for these and these reasons" came from women faculty. Just saying.

More to follow as we are getting closer to the date. I am looking forward to welcoming you to Chapel Hill May 21-23.

Take care,

​Flavio