SIMPLIFY THE COMPLICATED SO THAT YOU MAY SHARE IT WITH EVERYONE

This conference is set up for those who feel comfortable expressing their thoughts and research in a multidisciplinary setting. In contrast, in the traditional academic conference format, where most of the delegates hail from the same discipline, researchers seek to demonstrate how they incrementally advanced knowledge in their field. As a result, presentations tend to be highly specialized in nature, interspersed with jargon, symbols and technical terms unique to the discipline. 

This structure and style of presentation falters in a multidisciplinary conference setting where a high percentage of the conference attendees lack the expertise and knowledge of the presenter.    As a result, presentations in a multidisciplinary conference should be modified and simplified to ensure that   the audience gains an appreciation for the speakers’ contribution.  Formal presentations utilizing  specific methods, analytics, language and scholarly references are more than likely to serve as a barrier to communication,  given that most members of the audience are not familiar with the  discipline. If you have never participated in a multidisciplinary conference, take a look at the format used by speakers in TED conferences. The speakers at TED do an excellent job in cutting across different segments in their audience and getting the message through to everyone by avoiding unnecessary jargon. They pounce on the most sophisticated insights and research and simplify them in communicating with the audience. This is what we professors are supposed to do in class in teaching our students. The challenge is to do the same thing in our multidisciplinary conferences. In the age of mass media, those who can't communicate, can't teach. And statistics show that they can't get their online research readers to go past the abstract, much less the first page. If you care to simplify in your communications, your story may be about to begin.

RESEARCH EXCHANGE

MYTH 1: Conferences create future research partnerships inside the conference halls. False! Studies show that very little interaction occurs within the halls. According to one study, the ones who are more likely to interact are the smoking faculty who congregate outside.

listening to research

MYTH 2: Faculty go to conferences to listen to research presentations. Partially false. In Western conferences faculty are free to roam about as they please. Casinos are a big attraction and temptation. Our bus tours compete with the casinos in the quest for the faculty's time and intellect.

conference format

MYTH 3: The traditional conference format will continue to dominate. False! You may get your research from the internet but the internet isn't everything in research. Meet researchers in a personal setting. At IJAS you break the ice and build relationships within "the last 3 feet of communication."

Source: What is Wrong with the Outdated Vision of the Now in Academia