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13.26 I am writing an abstract for a presentation

at a conference. What do I need to be aware of?
What do organizers of conferences want to see in an abstract? To answer this ques-
tion you need to think about why conferences are organized. As an academic, you
may think that the primary aim is to bring people from the scientifi c community
together to talk about the state of the art. But conference organizers also want the
conference to make money so that they will be able to propose new editions in future

years. They will use any profits made (from accommodation, food, services etc) to

finance other events or research, and very importantly they are aware that if the con-
ference is a success it will look good on their CV and further their academic career.
To ensure that all these aims are achieved, they want:

• to appeal to as many people as possible (not just researchers in one very spe-

cifi c field) by inviting presenters who can make their work relevant to a broad
audience (however for workshops the participants are likely to be much more
homogeneous)

• results to be original and interesting

• speakers to be of a high quality
This means that your Abstract should:

1. really fit the conference theme, which in some cases might have a broad

spectrum
2. highlight the level of innovation

3. contain interesting results; thus proposals and future plans tend to be less
interesting unless they are already attracting a large community
4. be quickly understood and appreciated by reviewers

5. be understandable by non experts – plenary talks in particular have to be more
general – the audience can follow the parallel sessions if they wish to be
informed of more technical details
The fifth point is becoming increasingly important. A lot of public money is spent on

funding research. Those who allocate such funds need to see some kind of 'return' on
their 'investment'. For example, imagine you have been given funds for conducting
high-energy physics, funders will want you to publicize your results not only in highly
specialized physics journals and conferences, but also in related areas such as electron-

ics. Funders want to see how your methods and findings can be applied in other areas.