Conferences and Talks

Why Give Talks

Jeff Leek, in the Leek Group Guide to Giving Talks, puts it like this:

“When you are first starting out you should accept pretty much every opportunity to speak about your research you get. In approximate order of importance, the value of talks early in your career are:

1. To meet people
2. To make people excited about your ideas/software/results
3. To make people understand your ideas/software/results
4. To practice speaking

“Later the reasons evolve, altough not be as much as you’d think. The main change is that 4 evolves more into ‘to show people you are a good speaker’.”

Writing and Giving Talks

Here’s a list of good resources on how to write and give a conference talk:

• The Leek Group Guide to Giving Talks
• speaking.io

Common CAFRI Conferences

• American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting: Submissions usually due in late July/early August, conference in December
• Ecological Society of America (ESA) Annual Meeting: Submissions usually due in March-ish, conference in August
• useR!: The R User Conference: Submissions usually due in April, conference in June
• Society of American Foresters (SAF) National Convention: Submissions usually due in spring, conference in September
• New York SAF Annual Meeting: Conference usually in December
• Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative (FEMC) Conference: Submissions usually due late summer, conference in December (frequently conflicts with AGU)
• North American Forest Ecology Workshop (NAFEW): Conference in June (biannual)
• Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Meetings: January and July