Have you ever attended a poster presentation and spoke with a presenter? I’m sure listening to their explanations and seeing their WIP has made you realize, hmm - isn’t my research basically at this level?
Or how about this: have you ever skimmed through a conference paper or previous fellowship winning application and thought, hmm… this is actually not out of the realm of possibility for my current writing capabilities!
Come to find out (at least for me and many folks I’ve spoken to), most things in academia feel more achievable with an increase to exposure of the finished product. With that in mind… I want to let you know that organizing a workshop or tutorial absolutely falls under the realm of possibility for graduate students!
Though many workshops may be put on by professors, there are a number that are student-led or hosted by new professors (as in these organizers may only be a few years your senior!!).
But Daziyah, how do you know this? Because I’ve hosted a workshop myself! I had the pleasure of partnering with a few of my peers in the affective technology space to bring this research topic to front of mind for the ICRA 2024 audience (view website here).
So I shall impart some of my infinite (well… actually pretty limited, but hopefully helpful) wisdom unto you.
These workshop preparation tips will likely be most helpful for those workshops focused on inspiring collaboration, introducing participants to a developing field, and/or informing participants of the current state of the art for the field.
Background covered, let’s begin.
Things you’ll need:
- An idea
- Endorsement and support from your advisor
- A team
- A venue
- Activities
- Sponsors
An Idea
I mean, of course, but let’s also think about how you can flesh out this idea to feel confident in your proposal.
Questions to consider:
- What are topics you wish you saw addressed more in your field of study?
- Are there people you would like to expand your research network to encompass? Do they tend to work in the same field of study?
- Is there a major question you would like to hear the answers to from experts in the field?
For me, my idea came after attending World Haptics 2023. I wanted to know more about affective haptics (where the studies of emotions and touch overlap), and found that there was a decent amount of participants at the conference also inside of the field. We speculated about its future, talked of things we were excited to see in the past, and all I wanted was for this to be brought more to light in the haptics field. Voila - an idea!
Endorsement and support from your advisor
This will be easier to receive if you come to your advisor with a well-thought out idea and provide motivation for the workshop. Bonus points if you are already planning to present something at a related conference so funding was already considered (or if the conference is relatively inexpensive to attend!).
Why would you want support from your advisor?
- It’s nice to have someone in your corner.
- It’s good to get the perspective of someone who has more experience than you.
- They’ll likely be the one to review your submission beforehand, they need to know what they’re looking at and looking for.
- They can tell you if your wishes are feasible for 1) the conference you’re interested in, 2) the workload you current have.
- To make sure this pursuit will not conflict with progress towards your degree.
Luckily, my advisor didn’t need much convincing (thank you, Dr. O’Malley - you always support my dreams!) after I proposed this idea to her. I asked her about the feasibility of creating a workshop for the next conference and she provided advice from her years of experience and told me she believed I could do it.
A Team
If you look at the organizers section of a workshop’s website, there will likely be four or more people listed! This is not a single person’s endeavor - it may be your brain child but you don't have to do it alone! Your team also gives you clout - your name may not be known in the field, but if someone on your team is known then the conference will have more confidence in your ability to present the topic.
Ask questions of your advisor or others who have been on workshop planning committees along the lines of:
- Who do I need on the team?
- Do they need to be from different departments? Fields of study? Continents?
For myself, I started with someone I met at a previous conference that had similar interests to me and felt like a great potential collaborator (AND WAS! Thank you Bereket!!). My advisor was also part of the team, and she specifically recommended that I get collaborators and speakers from around the world - as in I had only covered the Americas and I needed to think bigger.
A Venue
What conference do you want to host your workshop?! Think of the possibilities in terms of:
- match to the research topic
- the audience you want to reach
- timeline to submission
- are you already submitting for a conference?
Depending on your venue, your conference topic may actually need to be adjusted. This is also going to affect the guest speakers (if you choose to have speakers), who would already be attending this conference? If you’re in a field that pays your speakers for attendance, how much would it cost you to help them reach the location of the conference?
I actually changed the topic of my workshop because of my plan to present it at ICRA! Originally, I wanted to have an Affective Haptics workshop for the haptics community but realized the next haptics conference didn’t take workshop submissions. Therefore, the topic got broadened to better accommodate the robotics community at ICRA - thus, Affective Technologies it was. Looking into speakers for this broader topic actually was really fun and expanded my knowledge of the greater community, so I’m happy the switch happened.
Activities
Workshops can actually be whatever you make them out to be! Depends on what you wish your audience to gain from the experience. Here are things you may want to consider:
- Guest speakers - experts in the field, those being serviced by the field, those doing work in the field, etc.
- Panels - is there a specific topic you want this to focus on or is it an Ask Me Anything related to the field?
- Icebreakers - yes, your audience members can get to know each other, not just those running the workshop!
- Experiments - if you are in a field that conducts human-subject research, especially if it is a field that is interested in how people interact with or work through a topic… you could actually have people participate in an engaging study! This is going to require IRB approval and consent forms (hopefully sent out to participants early so they know what they’re getting into), but I’ve participated in one of these and was actually pretty excited!
I personally don’t sit through multiple talks in a row very well if there is not some level of engagement, so I planned my workshop with the intention of interaction. I introduced the topic then allowed participants to walk around the room and consider questions about this research field. Then we got into the talks from guest speakers, followed by good Q&A sessions, a few breaks, and a panel discussion. We also had posters and demonstrations from some participants as well to get students involved. It was different from what I typically would see in a workshop, but the attendees loved it and so did I!
Sponsors
Even if your submission does not require this, I would still look into getting sponsors. For myself, the submission let me know who I should ask for sponsorship (the IEEE Technical Committees). You may have this guidance or you can ask your advisor for advice. I mainly like this because this means that 1) the sponsor will promote your workshop and 2) they might provide funding that you can use to give your participants (guest speakers, student presenters, fellow organizers, etc.) a gift!
In conclusion…
You can do it!
If you’re interested in hosting a workshop to bring knowledge to your peers in a different way than a paper or poster presentation can do, I promise you that it is possible. You got this. There’s a lot that goes into it, but it’s actually a lot less than you probably think it is.
I’ll go ahead and plug a previous workshop of mine, just for giggles: Applications and Future Directions of Affective Technologies (afdat.blogs.rice.edu), hosted at ICRA2024 in Yokohama, Japan.
About the author:
Daziyah Sullivan is a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. candidate from Jacksonville, FL. Her Bachelor's was obtained from Florida A&M University. Read more.
Further Reading:
Preparing for and Giving a Presentation at My First BIG Conference (BMES)