My sups suggested I presented one of my studies at this conference which I agreed to. Now that the conference is fast approaching I'm not sure if I want to do it anymore. Put it this way, I agreed to this months ago and my circumstances were very different. At the same time, as I got R&R at my viva, I feel this could potentially help me second time round.

So my question is: does it matter who presents the study at the conference? Do I have to do it? Or could it be another author??

I hate presenting at conferences, but the more I do it, the more I'm at ease with it AND the more my name and face are known (I hope!) so for those reasons I'd do it. Chances are you'll feel worse not doing it and getting someone else to than just doing it yourself.

How does one present at a conference? Is it just in front of a small group of people or in front of hundreds of people?

Sorry; I'm still a noob at this :/

How prestigious is the conference? It's certainly something you need to get used to, so if it's a big enough conference I'd go.

Thank you all.

You see, I don't mind the presenting itself I don't think, I probably wouldn't like the questioning bits though. It's the travelling there when I'm 33 weeks pregnant (I'll have to fly) and the costs (I'll have to cover everything!).

@Tt_dan - I think it depends on the conference set up. It may be different in other areas but in my experience, you can have 1) main presentation where you're presenting to everyone there (so hundreds of people), 2) paper presentations, where there'll be a few going on at the same time (so probably dozens of people, pending on your topic and interest of others) and 3) poster presentations where there'll be even less people. Mine is only for a poster presentation so I think it's 5 mins presentation, 5 minutes for questions. As for the numbers, in my case, not many...

Re: prestigious, it's not huge but within that field, I'd say it's big enough. Maybe it's worth bearing in mind that this is not in my field, but a related field and I have no plans of staying in academia so networking may not be the best either.

if its a poster presentation, and your're that pregnant, then no I wouldn't bother. Is there anyone who can present for you?

If not, then I'd ask the conference if they'd put it up anyway and explain the circumstances.

I would never go to a conference where I had to cover everything. Simple as that. It's not worth it.

I know what you mean larrydavid, I went for a poster presentation because I've never presented at a conference before but I'd have gone for a paper one if I had. To be honest, it probably doesn't sound like it but I REALLY want to do it as I'm not sure I'll ever have another opportunity again.

The problem only arose when I started talking about the logistics with hubby (he's worried about me flying even though the midwives have cleared me) and that got me thinking how much money I'd be spending when I could just spend it on the baby instead. If only I'd won the euromilions!

Sneaks, there could potentially be someone who could present it for me. I'm pretty sure they're going so it wouldn't cost them anything. I might just ask...

I guess I can still state that it's been presented at the conference at my next viva though even if I haven't presented it myself, right??

I have a colleague who was in the same situation, she asked a friend to stand there and hand out business cards for her in lieu of answering questions - worked fine and she got a few enquiries.

You could also just ask the friend to pop it up and pin a plastic cup full of business cards on the board with it, so they don't even have to stand there!

That's an excellent idea!! Thanks for that!

if you go with the friend doing it, I wouldn't tell the conference organisers - they can get sniffy about people not turning up for posters, which I can understand cos you'd get loads of people just sending in the posters and no one there.

I think they'll know I'm not going to turn up as I haven't paid for the conference yet and they keep sending me emails about it. Or is this a general email that gets sent to everyone?

Conferences are about raising funds. They just want your money.

Hm, whilst I'm not saying that this one isn't about money, I don't believe it is ALL about money...