Are you an early career researcher (ECR) who is hesitant about organising an academic conference? Are you a senior academic who has few occasions to collaborate with ECRs for such a purpose? This blog post illustrates how organising a conference can be rewarding for ECRs and the whole research community. Drawing on our experience as ECRs organising the British Association for Applied Linguistics–Vocabulary Special Interest Group (BAAL Vocab SIG) Conference 2024, we highlight the key benefits of being involved in this process.

Developing leadership skills

A valuable aspect of organising a conference is the development of leadership skills, which are essential for ECRs’ career development, helping them achieve their goals and develop their decision-making skills. ECRs should be welcome to lead initiatives and sessions. For example, nearly 75 per cent of the BAAL Vocab SIG Conference 2024 committee were ECRs. Each of us was assigned as a leader for a specific aspect of the conference such as the keynote hospitality team, the website management team, and the media team. These roles allowed us to realise our leadership potential. Being both leaders and team members of other teams also helped us reflect on our strengths and weaknesses and learn from each other.

Strengthening collaboration skills

Developing a research environment that supports staff and research students to collaborate is one of the key criteria in the UK’s Research Excellence Framework. The advantage of getting involved in a conference is that ECRs can collaborate with peers and senior staff who share similar research interests. Such opportunity enables ECRs to strengthen connections within their domain-specific community. For example, ECRs in the BAAL Vocab SIG Conference 2024 committee were in one or more sub-teams, and roles were assigned according to the team members’ availability and preferences, ensuring plausible workloads (Burford & Henderson, 2022). Each sub-team had a clear way of communicating and each member’s contributions were valued, which created an inclusive and supportive environment where everyone felt respected. Collaborating with senior academics also allowed us to understand how experienced researchers approach organising a conference.

‘The advantage of getting involved in a conference is that ECRs can collaborate with peers and senior staff who share similar research interests.’

Promoting an ECR-friendly research community in academia

Conferences are regular events in academia, and many active researchers in the UK are ECRs (Taylor & Wisker, 2023). Therefore, it is crucial that ECRs have their voices heard in organising the conferences. As ECRs, organising the conference helped foster our sense of belonging in academia, because we felt supported and recognised. We worked closely with senior academics and had autonomy to take responsibility for specific areas of the conference. For many of us, this was our first experience as team leaders at such an event. This experience helped us realise that our perspectives and contributions matter.

Supporting professional development

Attending a conference can help build ECRs’ professional network, by connecting with other ECRs and senior researchers in the same field and having inspiring conversations (Plonsky, 2020). Organising the conference can maximise the benefits. ECRs can have opportunities to establish connections with the plenary speakers and presenters before the conference. ECRs can also organise a workshop that best advances their career development. For example, we presented and promoted an ECR-led vocabulary group during the BAAL Vocab SIG Conference 2024. We also collaborated with the conference chair to coauthor a report on organising an academic conference. Both the conference-organising experience and written output from it enhanced our CVs.

Conclusion

Organising an academic conference as ECRs can be a beneficial experience, helping build leadership skills, expand professional networks, and contribute meaningfully to the research community. It can foster personal and professional growth and allow for connecting with other researchers.

If you are an ECR, we hope that this blog post will encourage you to engage in organising an academic conference. The skills you can gain will be valuable in your academic journey. If you are a senior academic, we hope this post inspires you to collaborate with ECRs in organising your next academic conference. Together, we can create inclusive academic environments that empower all members in our academic community.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Yen Dang, the local chair of the BAAL Vocab SIG Conference, for encouraging us to write this blog post and for her great support in the process of organising the conference. We are also thankful to Maggie Kubanyiova for her support as the CLER Director and to other colleagues from the conference local team – Richard Badger, Alice Deignan, Tom Hammond, Chengyan Li, Rasha Mohsen, Diane Pecorari, Zhuowei Qian, Tag Sahakyan, Nurdamia Shaffee and Huahui Zhao – for their invaluable dedication and professionalism throughout the conference.

References

Burford, J., & Henderson, E. F. (2022). Making sense of academic conferences: Presenting, participating and organising. Taylor & Francis.

Plonsky, L. (Ed.). (2020). Professional development in applied linguistics: A guide to success for graduate students and early career faculty. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Taylor, S., & Wisker, G. (2023). The changing landscape of doctoral education in the UK. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 60(5), 759–774. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2023.2237943