A Comic Conference Adventure

I found this blog post already framed by Kit's words, and ready to share. I was very interested in Valerie's experience and asked her a number of additional questions about it. I will share her answers in a future post about conferences -- a relevant topic for me this semester, as I am currently gearing up to present a paper at the annual SAMLA Conference in Raleigh-Durham next month. For now, enjoy Valerie's account of her overseas academic adventure! ~Emily

If you read Valerie's earlier guest post, you know that she had the honor of presenting her work on comics and identity at the Graphic Novel Conference in Oxford, England, UK last month. Valerie has been kind enough to share a bit about the experience with MALS in a Minute! Her adventure, in many ways, is typical for a student presenter . . . in other ways (such as when it comes to opening doors), it was quite unusual . . .

Image source: IU Oxford page

Now that I’ve been on my first Big Conference Adventure, in OXFORD, ENGLAND!, first off let me say that no matter how inept you are at navigating the journey itself, I can relate. When the plane landed at Heathrow Airport in London, I got in line for customs before I realized that I should have used the facilities first. In addition to that discomfort, when a customs agent finally began to question me, I couldn’t confidently tell her where I came from or why I was travelling. She evidently decided that whatever plot I was planning was doomed to failure because she passed me on into England. At this point let me take a moment to thank the Heathrow architect for placing toilets immediately following customs.

When I reached Mansfield College in Oxford, it was too early to get into my room, so I decided to visit a nearby park. The park was beautiful and huge, with many gates and paths. I sat down to call my husband, as we had pre-arranged, to let him know that I was o.k. When I realized I couldn’t get my cell phone to work, I immediately freaked, set out in search of a pay phone, and got LOST. I changed my priority to getting back to Mansfield College, and, after asking various people, I eventually found someone who could direct me.

It was still too early to get into my room, but I didn’t know what time it was because I had incorrectly used the daylight savings time function on my travel clock. The porter took pity on me, sold me a phone card, and gave me my room key early. He then proceeded to explain how the locks work. On the door to the building one uses an electronic button, waits for a green light and then pushes the door open. For the room door one uses the same electronic button, waits for the ringing buzz sound, and then turns the locking mechanism two times to the right to open, and twice to the left to close. I confess, instead of politely asking him to repeat those instructions, I replied: “Oh no!” The porter then escorted me into the building and up to the room and taught me how to open the doors. . . . Let’s review:

        

Tiger By the Tail by Valerie Bodell

I didn’t know where I was
I didn’t know what time it was
I couldn’t use my cell phone and
I couldn’t open the door.
Everyone I had had direct contact with has the 
       impression that I am helpless and shouldn’t 
       travel alone.


Everything after getting into the room was easy: I called my husband only a half hour late, and my presentation went well, though I got more complements on my presentation style than on the content. . . it’s good to know your strengths.


Let me share my feelings as an attendee. We listen more than we present, so for those who are listening to you, please start your presentation from the beginning, don’t assume that all of us know what you’re talking about. Also, please practice going slowly, especially if the language of the conference is not everyone’s first language. My approach to presenting, in case it will help anyone, follows: I didn’t use any technology mostly because I did not want to be that responsible, figure out the connections, or carry the weight of a laptop. I only had two images and I printed them out on both sides of one piece of paper to hand out to attendees. An added advantage of a paper copy was that everyone got the same view of my material no matter where they were sitting. I wore relaxed professional clothes that I did not have to think about, and I practiced . . . A LOT, so I could be comfortable with my material and just talk to the audience. The question and answer portion is not scary for me because by then I have successfully completed my presentation. In addition, this time I did not get many questions. I especially appreciated learning firsthand the depth and breadth of work currently going on in my field of interest. My final piece of advice is to try to take comfort from the other beginners, and learn from the more experienced. 
~Valerie Bodell

If you are scheduled to present at a conference soon, take Valerie's advice! Practice! If you haven't given a conference a second thought, why not? As Valerie mentions, conferences are an excellent way to meet people with similar academic and worldly interests, and you will learn more about how your topic fits into the bigger picture. Thanks, Valerie!

    

Red Cabbage by Valerie Bodell