How to Attended Your Next Conference for Free

Attending a conference can be an expensive thing to do, with lots of expenses, for example, the travel cost, the ticket for the conference, the food, and lodging are some of the main expenses you will have to pay, on top of that there will be hidden small expenses that will add up at the end of your tour.

Recently, a friend of mine asked someone with a limited budget how she could attend a conference without spending too much money. Since it's not something that I can simply reply to via text, I decided to write a blog post for anyone interested in attending the conference to read and save money. Anyone reading this may be able to apply one or many of these ideas to save expenses, and it may not work at all. So, I wish you luck,

Submitting a good paper or an abstract

If you submit a paper or an abstract, and it gets accepted, first of all, congratulations you did well, and secondly, you may be able to get a waiver or a travel grant from the organizers to attend the conference.

Most conferences have a travel grant or may have some sponsors who would like to sponsor a few good papers or abstracts because it would attract more people to visit a conference. So first I would try by submitting a good paper or an abstract, and then look if the organizers provide or have the budget to provide a travel grant for you to attend a conference.

This travel grant can be in different forms, it can either cover all your expenses including travel and lodging if you are really lucky, or maybe just a full waiver of the registration fee.

How to write a good abstract. TLDR: You need to practice writing.

Look for organizations that would sponsor and support your work.

If your abstract or paper does not secure a travel grant from the organizers, you can reach out to different organizations (ideally an organization that sponsors the event) and check if they would like to sponsor you in attending the conference or event.

This is beneficial for the organizations as you would be presenting something related to the organization or their area of work, which is like free publicity for them and their work. So organizations would be happy to support you in attending the conference or event.

For example, let's imagine you did some interesting work in digital health and diabetes, then you can try to reach out to the world diabetes foundation and ask for a travel grant to attend this conference, provided that they have some extra funding available they would be happy to sponsor you in attending the conference or event because you will be highlighting work in the field of diabetes.

But it's important you don't ask for a sponsorship from an organization that has no relevance to your work, or the conference.

Attend as a volunteer.

If you don't have a paper or an abstract, but still want to attend the conference or event you can look and see if the event is looking for volunteers. Running a conference can be something very challenging, and requires a lot of manpower to coordinate the work and make sure everything runs smoothly.  

Since most organizations don't have that much manpower, what they do is openly ask for volunteers to join and support in organizing and making the conference run smoothly. In exchange, you will be able to attend the conference for free, but on the other hand, you might be occupied from time to time in helping the organizers.

But I have seen people attending as volunteers, and even making good use of the conference at the same time. So check if the organizers are looking for sponsors, and apply.

Just ask for a reduction of fees.

Sometimes you can just ask for a reduction of fees from the organizers so you will get a discount when registering for the conference. Organizers are happy to provide such offers for non-profit academic organizations as well as if you are coming from a lower-middle income country or a student.

This is something I have used many times, to get a partial reduction of fees, due to working in a non-profit organization or living in a lower-middle-income country. Organizers may ask for proof of what you are claiming, so be prepared to provide them when requesting.

But make sure you ask first, rather than just giving up.

Ask your place of work.

If you are working in an organization that is on the field or topic of the conference, the organization you work for would maybe like you to attend the conference. They might be interested in you getting new experiences and learning new things, which might benefit the organization in return. Maybe you will help the organization by spreading the word about the place you work for at the conference. So just check where you work, they might have some budget or a project that has some travel budget for you to attend the conference on behalf of the organization.

These are some tips that I can think of when trying to save some money when attending a conference when your personal budget is limited. Some general tips may include

• Staying at a friend's place. You will save some money on lodging.
• Travel light, so you will save some travel costs in carrying heavy luggage.

I will try to update the post with more points if anything comes to my mind.

If you are looking to find the latest events in digital health and health informatics, I invite you to check the Health Informatics Cafe, where we are building a community for digital health and informatics - https://hicafe.co

I hope you will find the next event or job in informatics there.