Networking at an academic conference is mostly preparation: read the programme, read a paper by each of three or four people you hope to meet, and arrive with one question for each. A question about someone's own work is the easiest way to approach someone at a conference, because, in the words of University of Reading Study Advice (2026), people love to talk about their own work.
EdCitation publishes this guide; we read every page and study it cites on 27 September 2026, and where the guides disagree we say so. The reading is where EdCitation fits: the free Find sources searches the published record by topic or by claim, so you can see who works on a session's subject, and Cite a source gives each paper's reference for your notes. EdCitation never writes a word of a student's work, and here that is the point: a question you worked out yourself is the one worth asking.
Getting on the programme is in how to write a conference abstract, what to say about your own work in how to explain your research in two minutes, and smaller rooms in how to speak up in seminars when you are nervous.
How do you prepare to network at an academic conference?
Prepare by reading the programme, choosing the sessions where the people you want to meet will be, and reading their work before you travel.
Read the programme and choose your talks
The University of Colorado Boulder Graduate School (n.d.) advises marking in the schedule both the talks by scholars you want to meet and the sessions likely to put you near them. SETAC, the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, tells first-time attendees at its European meeting to look through the presenters, chairs and exhibitors in advance and to prepare questions about their work (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry [SETAC], n.d.-a).
You do not have to attend everything. A Sheffield PhD student, writing for the university's School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities, recommends skipping less relevant talks to rest (Surtees, 2024), and the American Historical Association's first-timer guide says leaving between speakers is fine (American Historical Association [AHA], n.d.-b).
Read the work of the people you hope to meet
Reading's guide suggests picking people you would like to talk to and reading up on their work. Our advice: for each person, one recent paper, its main finding in a sentence, and one honest question about its method or limits, with the reference beside it for your follow-up email.
Arrange a meeting, or write afterwards?
The guides differ. Imperial College London's Early Career Researcher Institute (n.d.) suggests contacting people beforehand to arrange a quiet point in the programme, and the AHA suggests emailing panellists to meet for coffee. Reading warns that key speakers will be busy and suggests emailing them afterwards instead. Our reading: arrange ahead with people near your stage, and write to the keynote speaker afterwards.
How do you approach someone at a conference?
Start with the event, not with yourself. Imperial suggests asking how someone is finding the conference or which talks they have enjoyed, and leaving "what do you work on?" until you have some rapport. Colorado's opener is "How is your meeting going?", which it calls the Old Faithful of conversation starters.
Which group to join
Imperial advises against joining pairs, who may be talking privately, and notes that groups larger than four tend to split; Rice University suggests groups of three or four (Prinetti, 2024). Pick three or four people and wait for eye contact.
Pitch or no pitch?
The guides disagree. The AHA recommends an elevator speech of thirty seconds or less, Rice a brief, clear summary of your work, and Imperial says to ditch the elevator pitch and listen more than you talk. They describe different moments: have two sentences ready for when you are asked, and do not open with them.
Not only the famous names
Surtees writes that other PhD students and junior lecturers are often keener to collaborate than the biggest names, and Reading suggests eating lunch with different people each day.
How do you ask a good question after a talk?
Ask one short question about the talk's evidence, or take it to the speaker at the coffee break. SETAC says questions in sessions help you be remembered and carry the conversation on to the posters. Reading suggests writing questions down, and notes that most presenters are happy to talk later over coffee or meals.
Plenty of people hold back. Carter et al. (2018) surveyed 509 academics, 38% of them postgraduates, and observed 247 departmental seminars in 10 countries: 91% of women and 92% of men said they had sometimes not asked a question they had, and women rated not working up the nerve higher as a reason. The limits: departmental seminars, not conferences, and gender judged by observers.
At a conference, Hinsley et al. (2017) observed 34 talk sessions at a 2015 conservation biology congress in Montpellier. Allowing for who was in the audience, men asked 1.8 questions for each one asked by a woman, and the ratio was the same among questioners who looked under 50. One meeting, one field, and ages judged by eye. Our conclusion: if you froze in the Q&A, the question is not lost, because the corridor counts too.
Poster session tips for visitors and presenters
A poster session is the easiest place to network, because the conversation is one to one and the presenter is waiting to be asked. SETAC calls poster breaks great for in-depth discussion; the AHA notes that you move at your own pace. Reading expects presenters to answer questions beside the poster, and suggests slips with your name and email address.
As a visitor, ask the presenter to walk you through the main result, then ask one question from the methods. As a presenter, ask visitors what they work on before you start.
Before photographing a poster, check. SETAC lets presenters opt out with a "no recording or copying" icon and asks participants to respect it (SETAC, n.d.-c), and the AHA's code lists unwelcome recording among prohibited conduct (AHA, 2025). Asking for the paper is better anyway.
What to say at a conference: situations and sources
The wording in the middle column is ours; the advice behind it comes from the sources named.
| Situation | What to do or say (ours) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Someone you want to meet is speaking | Read a recent paper first (search the topic in Find sources), then email to ask for ten minutes at a quiet point | Imperial; AHA |
| The keynote speaker is surrounded | Do not queue; write afterwards and name the talk | Reading |
| Joining a group | Choose three or four people. "Mind if I join? I was at the session on X." | Imperial; Rice |
| Asked what you work on | Two sentences, then ask them the same | AHA; Rice |
| Your question missed the Q&A | "I was at your talk. Could I ask about the sample?" | Reading; SETAC |
| At a poster | "Could you walk me through the main result?" | SETAC; AHA |
| You promised to send something | Send it within a week, with its reference | Reading |
| Someone makes you uncomfortable | Leave, tell staff, and use the meeting's reporting route | AHA; SETAC |
How do you write a conference follow-up email?
Send a short email that says where you met, what you talked about and one easy next step, with anything you promised attached. Reading is blunt: if you said you would send a paper, do; conference contacts have a high drop-out rate; one good contact is a success. Imperial asks for a brief message that is easy to answer, one reminder after a couple of weeks, and a line every few months after that. Colorado takes a longer view: write to the people you got on with a month or two before the next conference and suggest coffee.
A follow-up email template (ours)
Subject: Your talk on [topic] at [conference]
Dear Dr [Surname],
We spoke after your talk on [topic] at [conference] on [day], when I asked about [your question]. Thank you for your point about [what they said].
As promised, here is the paper I mentioned: [reference and DOI].
I am a [year] PhD student at [university], working on [one sentence]. Would you be open to a 20-minute call in the next month about [one specific thing]? If not, there is no need to reply.
Best wishes, [Your name]
What does research say about networking at conferences?
The best evidence is a natural experiment. In August 2012, Hurricane Isaac forced the American Political Science Association to cancel its annual meeting at less than 48 hours' notice. Campos et al. (2018) followed 17,467 academics and found the cancellation cut an attendee's likelihood of co-authoring with another attendee by 16%. An earlier version reports that the median attendee had published nothing before the meeting, and that the lost collaborations were disproportionately between people at distant institutions with closely related research (Campos et al., 2017).
The limits: one discipline, one meeting, and co-authorship as the only outcome. We found no controlled study of networking techniques themselves; the advice above is experienced practice, not tested method.
Can you get funding to attend a conference?
Often, in small amounts. Reading points to postgraduate bursaries and reduced rates, and travel bursaries from your department, funder or subject association, and warns that presenters are not always reimbursed. Cornell's Graduate School offers conference grants to presenting students on a rolling basis, and advises choosing conferences strategically because funding rarely covers everything (Hrichak, 2024). The AHA lists travel grants of $200 to $400 for graduate student members and childcare grants of up to $250, with applications from 15 September to 15 November (AHA, n.d.-a). SETAC Europe's Student Attendance Grant gives free registration to full student members based in Europe, the Middle East or Central Asia, and a free membership does not qualify; rounds for the 2027 meeting open in September (SETAC, n.d.-b).
What do conference codes of conduct say?
The AHA's code, last updated 8 June 2025, covers its activities in person, by telephone and online, prohibits harassment, stalking, unwelcome recording and persistent unwelcome approaches for intimacy, and must be acknowledged by every registrant. SETAC states zero tolerance for discrimination and harassment, asks participants to raise concerns with its executive director, and expects responsible drinking at receptions. Read your own meeting's code: it applies at the bar and the dinner too.
A before, during and after checklist (ours)
- Four weeks before: mark the talks, posters and socials you will attend.
- Three weeks before: choose three or four people, search each talk's topic in Find sources, and read one recent paper by each.
- Two weeks before: get each paper's reference from Cite a source and write one question beneath it.
- One week before: email one or two people near your stage to suggest coffee.
- At the meeting: ask one question a day, visit posters, eat with new people, and note names and topics each evening.
- Afterwards: send promised papers within a week, and one reminder at most.
- Before the next meeting: write again to the people you got on with.
How does EdCitation help you prepare for a conference?
EdCitation is the best tool for steps 2 and 3, because it looks each paper up in the publisher's record and writes nothing: the paper you mention to a speaker exists, and the question is yours. Find sources costs nothing, needs no account and reaches about 300 million published works; type a topic, or the claim a sentence has to support, and narrow the results by kind of source, by years or to open access.
On 27 September 2026 we searched Find sources for "networking at academic conferences early career researchers". Crossref answered, with 2,434,019 works in total. The tenth result was "Stickiness in academic career (im)mobilities of STEM early career researchers: an insight from Greece" by Charikleia Tzanakou, in Higher Education (2020), cited 16 times. The first was a short tips piece registered as a dataset, so set the kind of source to articles before you read.
For the hurricane study, Cite a source took the record from Crossref, screened it for retraction (none), and gave back this APA 7 entry:
Campos, R., Leon, F., & McQuillin, B. (2018). Lost in the storm: The academic collaborations that went missing in Hurricane ISSAC. The Economic Journal, 128(610), 995–1018. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12566
Sentence case kept Hurricane ISSAC as the name it is, with ISSAC spelt as the publisher's record spells it, so the entry needs no fix. Your references and a reading list stay in a free account. When the person you hope to meet writes books, Max ($24 a month) opens the Library, where more than 5 million books can be read or borrowed, all in one place.
Quick questions
How do I approach someone at a conference?
Start with the event ("How is your meeting going?"), then mention their talk or paper. For a keynote speaker, Reading suggests an email afterwards instead.
When should I send a conference follow-up email?
Within a week is our advice, with anything you promised. Imperial suggests one reminder after a couple of weeks if there is no reply.
Do I need business cards?
The guides differ. The AHA suggests printing at least 50, Reading suggests slips with your name and email, and Imperial mentions LinkedIn's nearby feature.
Can EdCitation help me prepare for a conference?
Yes. EdCitation's Find sources finds the papers of the people you hope to meet, and Cite a source gives each one's reference, both free; the questions are yours.
References
- American Historical Association. (n.d.-a). Annual meeting funding. https://www.historians.org/events/annual-meeting/resources-and-guides/annual-meeting-funding/
- American Historical Association. (n.d.-b). First-time attendee guide. https://www.historians.org/events/annual-meeting/resources-and-guides/first-time-attendee-guide/
- American Historical Association. (2025, June 8). Code of professional conduct at officially sanctioned AHA activities. https://www.historians.org/resource/code-of-professional-conduct-at-officially-sanctioned-aha-activities/
- Campos, R., de Leon, F. L. L., & McQuillin, B. (2017). Lost in the storm: The academic collaborations that went missing in Hurricane Isaac (Discussion Paper KDPE 1707). School of Economics, University of Kent. https://www.kent.ac.uk/economics/repec/1707.pdf
- Campos, R., Leon, F., & McQuillin, B. (2018). Lost in the storm: The academic collaborations that went missing in Hurricane ISSAC. The Economic Journal, 128(610), 995–1018. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12566
- Carter, A. J., Croft, A., Lukas, D., & Sandstrom, G. M. (2018). Women's visibility in academic seminars: Women ask fewer questions than men. PLOS ONE, 13(9), Article e0202743. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202743
- Hinsley, A., Sutherland, W. J., & Johnston, A. (2017). Men ask more questions than women at a scientific conference. PLOS ONE, 12(10), Article e0185534. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185534
- Hrichak, K. (2024, May 13). Grad tips: Conferences. Cornell University Graduate School. https://gradschool.cornell.edu/announcements/grad-tips-conferences/
- Imperial College London Early Career Researcher Institute. (n.d.). Communication: Reaching out to have the first conversation. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/admin-services/early-career-researcher-institute/resources/networking-resources/communications/
- Prinetti, A. (2024, October 2). 10 networking tips for grad students who aren't extroverts. Rice University Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. https://graduate.rice.edu/news/current-news/10-networking-tips-grad-students-who-arent-extroverts
- Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. (n.d.-a). First-time attendee tips. SETAC Europe 35th Annual Meeting. https://www.setac.org/discover-events/global-meetings/setac-europe-35th-annual-meeting/programme/first-time-attendee-programme-tips.html
- Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. (n.d.-b). Grants and financial assistance. SETAC Europe 36th Annual Meeting. https://www.setac.org/discover-events/global-meetings/setac-europe-36th-annual-meeting/registration/meeting-registration-grants.html
- Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. (n.d.-c). Participant policies. https://www.setac.org/learn-about-setac/policies/participant-policies.html
- Surtees, G. (2024, April 12). How to make the most of conferences. School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities, University of Sheffield. https://sheffield.ac.uk/hpdh/news/how-make-most-conferences
- University of Colorado Boulder Graduate School. (n.d.). Guide to academic networking. https://www.colorado.edu/graduateschool/services-resources/career-resources/guide-academic-networking
- University of Reading Study Advice. (2026, September 4). Getting the most out of conferences. Research postgraduates. https://libguides.reading.ac.uk/research-postgraduates/conferences