I submitted an abstract to a conference about a 6 months ago and as the date approaches I'm realizing that I don't have anything too intelligent to say (I was expecting to find a lot more data to look at between then and now).

The conference is in Asia and I have my tickets bought and would really like to attend, but I'm not so sure I want to risk looking stupid so I'm thinking of pulling my paper.

Has anyone pulled a paper and still attended the conference? It's about 3 weeks before hand. I'm not sure if anyone will notice/care? Any advice!

Cheers!

Academia can be a very small world so although not a capital crime, I don't think it would be a brilliant idea to cancel your paper. What about trying to have a discussion type paper on the problems you encountered? Be honest and admit results are not what you are expecting and focus the paper on possible reasons why. Is your lack of data something you could talk about; is it going to make you re-define your study parameters for example?

Pull the paper if you really feel you can't say anything but I bet you could make a conference paper out of it.

Don't cancel. This is a good opportunity. Dwelling on the negatives wouldn't sound so good, but you can include the problems in your conclusions. Mention the fact that work is still incomplete and ask the audience some constructive feedback and suggestions to take it to the next level. Conference presentations can be great tool to develop your work further, as you will be getting questions and help from experts. Be open, but don't sound negative, and don't be apologetic. It is natural for results to take longer than expected. Good luck

Don't cancel the presentation. Present it as a work in progress paper. Most conference presentations are only 20 minutes long anyway. Surely you can find enough to say for that :p And as others have said academia is a small world. The conference organisers would certainly notice and care if you cancelled but were still at the conference. Don't do it.

It wouldn't be polite, no. It would leave the organisers with an empty slot to fill at short notice. Also, in giving you a slot they have probably turned other people down. So you really should use this opportunity.

But it's not uncommon for people to change from the abstract that they submitted to talk about something different. If you want to take a seriously different angle you should probably let them know in case they have a chance to change the conference materials before they are printed. But otherwise the suggestion others have made of presenting 'work in progress' or a methodological discussion sounds sensible.

I agree with the others so I wouldn't suggest it either. They are pretty easy with PhD students as they know it's work in progress so just remember to tell them that! You might meet someone/people who are able to help and it's an opening to say any help would be appreciated when you talk and meet with people afterwards.

It won't be as nerve wracking as you think as everyone knows a PhD is research training so will take that into consideration. People know that research often doesn't go the way you plan so you will have shared experiences with these people.

Good luck with it - I think you'll be able to find enough info as you'll need slides on your project intro, rationale, methodology which should take up a few slides before you get to the results. If it's a poster there will not be much room left so that'll be fine if you just use some selected data.