PCA/ACA

The First-Timer's Guide to the Conference

Written by Tamar Gablinger
Subject Area Chair of Conspiracy Theory/ Claims of the Paranormal

The PCA/ACA annual conference is a relatively large conference, which means that you are bound to be fertilized by many ideas, not necessarily from your discipline. Here are a few lines of advice:

Even if you "do" believe in ghosts and vampires, all participants are mortals, including that famous professor of cultural studies or the head of the association. This size shouldn't alarm you-- it is one of the friendliest conferences I have ever participated in. Feel free to address anyone, including those who have "professor emeritus" and "conference organizer" next to their name.
Unless you're really-really poor, I would highly recommend sharing a room at the Marriott and not using some other hostel/hotel. With four people in the room, it is not that expensive, and you will be able to go to any presentation you would like to, regardless of the hour.
The time slot for all panels is 90 minutes. There are usually four presenters in each, and we also leave time for questions and discussion, which means that you should finish your own presentation in 15 minutes (with three presenters-- 20 minutes).

A 15 minutes presentation is approximately 5-6 double spaced printed pages. A 20 minutes presentation is 6-7 such pages.

If you don't know if your ideas could fit in 15 minutes, practice in advance.

No ideas are so important that they should take time from other presenters. Always imagine how you would have felt if you were the last one on the panel and your predecessors would have talked for 30 minutes.

Presentations shouldn't be "reading an essay aloud". You should communicate with your audience; use the written script as reference, not as a sacred text to be repeated aloud. If you’d practice, you might notice that some terms are better on paper; and their acronyms might be better when spoken aloud.

Power Point is also not sacred. Always prepare for the event of a natural disaster, with a candle-light presentation or more likely -- to the event that your Power Point presentation wouldn’t work for some reason. In other words -- think of a "Plan B" in case no technology works.

The conference language is ENGLISH. If your English is not so good, practice in advance so that your audience can readily understand your presentation.