Organizing One's Own Conference Can Fill A Scientific Void

Sadao Mori's proposal sounded promising to Du Pont chemist Howard Barth. Mori, a researcher at Mie University in Japan, had contacted Barth, an active member of the American Chemical Society, in early 1987, seeking his assistance in setting up a conference on polymer analysis under the auspices of ACS and its Japanese counterpart. While talking over the idea with Mori, however, Barth was struck by a new notion: Why not enlarge the scope of the meeting and bring scientists studying polymer characterization into the fold as well? Such a gathering would be a novel one, for despite the natural overlap that existed between the fields of polymer analysis and polymer characterization, scientists working in each area rarely intersected on a professional basis. In Barth's view, arranging a joint conference seemed like the perfect way to break down the wall separating the two camps of polymer scientists. Assess the need for a conference first. Canvass your colleagues for their opinions. Take into account the schedules and commitments of your intended audience. Avoid conflicts with other meetings these scientists might attend. Be aware of sources of assistance, such as the meetings division of a professional society or the conference planning office at your university. Seek financial support or other forms of sponsorship if you feel such backing is needed. However, make sure you understand how the terms of the arrangement affect your independence. Keep the meeting focused. Don't try to address too broad a range of issues. Settle on a format for the meeting that best suits your goals. --J.S. And if he was going to topple professional barriers, Barth thought, why not tackle national ones as well? The chemist envisioned making the conference truly global in scale, shifting its location to a new country every year. The only hitch in his scheme was that this sort of globetrotting arrangement ruled out ACS involvement. Confronted with the prospect of having to modify his vision of the conference to conform with ACS policy, Barth elected to run the symposium himself. To set things in motion, Barth sank $1,000 of his own funds into the meeting for legal counsel and stationery supplies. He figured that revenues from registration fees would cover the bulk of his costs. In retrospect, though, he says that his plans were fraught with a little peril. "The first meeting, financially, was touch-and-go," he recalls. "I estimated a worse-case scenario of 50 to 70 [registrants]. I figured that there had to be at least 50 people who would be interested enough to come. If I could do that, great." If not, he would have suffered a financial loss. As it turned out, 90 scientists showed up for the First International Symposium on Polymer Analysis and Characterization at the University of Toronto in the summer of 1988, more than enough for Barth to meet his expenses. The conference was also sufficiently successful to ensure its continued survival. The third such symposium is scheduled to take place July 23-25 in Brno, Czechoslovakia, with attendance expected to top 200. Barth is one of a number of scientists who have bypassed normal channels and organized conferences on their own initiative. The primary impetus behind most of these home-grown affairs is need. Although the scientific community certainly suffers from no shortage of symposia, there's still a demand for small-scale forums that address the interests of individual clusters of researchers. The desire for autonomy can also play a part in the decision to go it alone. As Barth's story demonstrates, managing a conference from start to finish secures the organizers not only the freedom to set their own agenda, but also the flexibility to conduct the meeting as they see fit. Yet it's sometimes more than mere selfless dedication to the advancement of one's science or an independent turn of mind that prods a researcher into action; the urge to engage in a little self-promotion can serve as a spur as well. When he launched a conference on nitrogen fixation in the early 1970s, for example, chemist William Newton's overt intentions were to establish a clearinghouse for research in the field. But Newton, who at the time was working at the Charles F. Kettering Research Laboratory in Ohio, acknowledges that he also hoped the gathering might ease the lab's funding problems. A conference would be "one way for us to tell people what we're doing and convince them how good we are and that they should give us money," he says. Scientists should not expect to profit personally from conference organizing, however. Once a conference planner becomes established and well accepted, Barth says, "it may be possible to make a few bucks out of it. But for a new symposium, it doesn't pay." Regardless of one's motives, starting a conference from the ground up is not a task to be undertaken lightly, veterans of the process warn. It takes some initiative, says Jim Rollings, a chemical engineer at Worcester Polytechnic Institute who has arranged a series of biotechnology conferences. "You have to figure out everything that has to be done, because you don't have the support of a society." "Everything that has to be done" includes such responsibilities as deciding when and where to hold the meeting, whether to seek outside assistance and sponsorship, and what sort of program and format to adopt. Although this list is by no means all-inclusive, it does embrace the salient questions that all prospective organizers must consider in the course of planning a conference. The very first order of business calls for gauging whether the interest in the meeting actually exists. "Technically, there has to be a need," Barth explains. "One has to have a good idea what's already out there and if a niche can be filled. I contacted a number of people in the area of polymer characterization just to get their input and see if they thought it was a worthwhile venture. Then I put together a governing board of well-respected scientists in the area who [agreed] to help me out." Once the viability of a meeting is determined, then the organizer can proceed to hammer out the arrangements. When it comes to picking a date, it's essential to coordinate the timing of the event with the schedules of the prospective attendees. In other words, if academic scientists constitute the principal audience for a gathering, it can be counterproductive to run the meeting during the middle of a semester. A corollary to this rule is to avoid conflicts with any conference likely to siphon off attendance from one's own. However, smart organizers can sometimes use the drawing power of another group's meeting to their advantage. That's exactly what Barth did when he arranged to hold last year's polymer conference in Austin, Texas, the weekend before ACS' spring bash in Dallas. "I figured it would be convenient for people attending the national ACS meeting to stop by," he says. To some extent, the timing of a meeting can be dictated by its location, as geologist Henry Halls discovered when he tried to find a suitable date for a 1985 conference on the ancient sheets of rock known as dikes. He had elected to host the symposium on his home turf -- the University of Toronto's Erindale Campus -- and accommodate attendees in the dormitories, a decision that instantly narrowed his choices down to the few months when school was not in session. The college's prior commitments further restricted the times when its facilities would be available. Complicating the issue even more were the work routines of the conference's audience. "You can't have [a geology meeting] in the summer, because geologists are away in the field," Halls says. He eventually managed to reserve a slot in early June that satisfied all of the parties involved. Location is partly a matter of economics. Reserving a convention center or a block of hotel rooms in most cities requires some form of credit or seed money. Without either, one's options are curtailed considerably. Caught in this sort of financial squeeze when casting about for a conference site his first time around, Barth ended up going the college campus route, holding the meeting at the University of Toronto. While the accommodations were not as posh as he would have liked, Barth says, the university did have the undeniable advantage of not asking for payment in advance. Brigham Young University chemist Milton Lee, on other hand, enjoyed the luxury of a $15,000 state grant awarded him for the purposes of organizing a conference on supercritical chromatography in Utah. With such a fat bankroll in hand, Lee could afford to select any site in the state for the January 1986 meeting. He chose Park City, a locale that not only was close to his own offices at Brigham Young, but also had the added appeal of being one of Utah's premier ski resorts. There are still numerous other logistical details that must be attended to as well. It can all seem a little daunting, but help in various forms is available, often just for the asking. According to Geri Goodenough, director of scientific meetings at the Federated Association of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), neophyte conference organizers are welcome at her door, although she does charge a fee for her services, depending on the degree of assistance requested. "I tell them what's negotiable with the hotel or convention center and give them advice on suppliers, and how to solicit for funding if they need it," she says. ACS' meetings office extends similar assistance to conference-organizing scientists who feel overburdened by their responsibilities. "We can provide conference management services at any level: We can just handle registration or send out mailings and brochures, or we can do the whole works," reports Christine Pruitt, Goodenough's counterpart at ACS. In exchange, Pruitt merely asks that ACS members receive a discount on registration. Her office also distributes upon request a booklet about conference management, a sort of do-it-yourself guide explaining various trade secrets, including tips on negotiating with hotels and dealing with exhibitors. Conference organizers do not have to be members of ACS or FASEB to take advantage of these services, as long as their meeting is of potential interest to society members. The source of support closest at hand, though, is often the organizer's own institution. In laying the groundwork for the first nitrogen fixation symposium, for instance, Newton was able to turn over most of the financial and administrative responsibilities to the business managers at the Kettering Lab, leaving him free to concentrate on the scientific end of the conference. Newton credits the aid he received from the Kettering Lab as being crucial to his meeting's overall success, not to mention his own peace of mind. "You need some organization in order to help you do this, to share the workload, and share the blame," he advises. This is not to say that it's impossible to conduct a meeting relying strictly on your own sensibilities for guidance. Brigham Young's Milton Lee has run both his International Symposia on Supercritical Chromatography as one-man shows, handling all of the arrangements himself and even dispensing with a governing board. "It's easier to control if I make all of the decisions. It's too time-consuming to organize a scientific committee or board," he says. The biggest question mark hanging over most first-time conferences tends to be finances. Relying on registration fees alone to pay for the conference puts one in a precarious position, especially if expenses prove to be higher, or attendance lower, than expected. One way around this problem is to solicit money from outside agencies. The National Science Foundation, for example, issues grant money for conferences as part of its normal funding activities. Industry is another source of potential assistance. In preparation for the third installment of his symposium coming up next January, Lee asked 30 different companies for funds. As bait, he dangled the offer of free registration for one or two employees and mention in the program booklet as a sponsor. So far, he reports, the response has been encouraging, with six or seven firms promising commitments. It's also possible to approach a scientific society like FASEB or ACS asking for a sponsorship that involves no financial component. The chief value of such a setup is that the imprimatur of a respected organization lends one's meeting credibility. And there may be other benefits as well. When Barth signed on the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) as a sponsor for this year's polymer symposium in Czechoslovakia, the society agreed to publicize the meeting in its journal and assist attendees in attaining visas. If sponsorship is forthcoming, however, the advantages it brings may also involve certain obligations. For instance, while landing NSF's backing for the first symposium on nitrogen fixation solved all of William Newton's financial worries, he did have to bow to the foundation's wishes and hold the gathering at Washington State University. "The NSF had an interest in pushing some work that was ongoing at that campus, so we compromised on sites," he says. As part of the terms of his arrangement with IUPAC, Barth is granting members a 10 percent discount on admission to his meeting in Czechoslovakia and is allowing the society to pick the journal in which the proceedings of the meeting will be published. In devising a program for a new meeting, Halls suggests, the important point to remember is "keep it well focused. Make sure there's a distinct kind of problem for people to think about," he says. Some thought also needs to be given to the expectations of the attending scientists, especially if the meeting is targeted at a mixed audience of academic and industrial researchers. Rollings advises meeting planners to talk with both segments and have a give-and-take about what each group wants. "You may have to have some flexibility about the agenda to attract the audience you want to reach," he says. A conference's format can be just as important as its content in promoting the organizer's goals for a meeting. For instance, one of Newton's objectives for his meeting was to foster interdisciplinary communication among researchers in nitrogen fixation. Therefore, rather than conduct parallel sessions, which can easily result in a meeting segregated along disciplinary lines, he decided to go with single sessions. That way, "people working at the chemical end would get a feel for what's going on at the genetic or the agricultural end, and vice versa," he explains. The last issue to be resolved is the symposium's frequency -- is the conference to be a recurring event, and, if so, how often should it meet? The answer to the latter half of this question largely depends on the pace of research within the particular area. In Newton's field, a two-year timetable seemed best suited to the rate of new developments. "A two-year cycle is one where we could be pretty certain that somewhere within the overall research effort that nitrogen fixation encompasses there would be reasonable progress and make it worthwhile for us to get together again," he says. The nitrogen fixation conference just celebrated its eighth meeting last month in Knoxville, Tenn. Once was enough for Henry Halls. Three weeks before his meeting was to occur, he remembers, the number of confirmed attendees totaled only 70, which meant the conference would be operating at a loss. A last-minute surge in registration actually enabled Halls to turn a profit, but the stress was enough to induce him to bow out of the conference business. "When you're in charge, you carry the [responsibility]. You can imagine all sorts of horrible scenarios," he says. "The worry and the potential for ulcers -- that's why I wouldn't do it again." But the conference Halls initiated on dike forms is not dead. Inspired by Halls' lead, the delegation from Australia stood up at the meeting in 1985 and pledged to host another gathering five years later. Halls has retained a spot on the governing board, but the only responsibility he faces this time around is figuring out how to get himself to Adelaide in September. Jeff Seiken is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh.

Organizing One's Own Conference Can Fill A Scientific Void

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