Sociology Convention Advice

It’s been a long time since we’ve shared advice about surviving the ASA convention, and maybe the advice has changed in recent years. Last year, too late to help, I saw worries people expressed about getting along at the convention, so I thought I’d start a thread for advice. Please add your advice and share this around different social media platforms. Here are answers to FAQs I saw last year. You will note that none of these are about how to do a good presentation.

1. Section business meetings are often good places to run into people in your area. This is definitely true at the CBSM business meeting. In my experience other sections vary, some are friendly and sociable, while nobody bothers to go to the meetings of others.
2. Off-site receptions hosted by ASA sections or other ASA groups are not “private” events any more than the receptions held in the convention center. If you are a member of a section, you are definitely welcome at that reception no matter where it is held. Receptions are held off site because the costs of a reception at a convention center or convention hotel is typically outrageous, like $40 for a bowl of chips. Groups get more and better food cheaper at a restaurant. You are welcome as a first year grad or an unemployed sociologist or whatever.
3. There is a time-honored tradition of crashing the receptions for groups you are not a member of. There are some ticketed events that people pay in advance for that are fundraisers, like the Minority Fellows program reception, that you cannot crash. But all the section receptions are open to anyone who shows up, and many receptions are jointly held by multiple sections whose members do not know each other. As long as you behave nicely and avoid acting like a drunken or otherwise offensive a** can go to any of these openly publicized events.
4. Receptions may or may not be good places to meet people. Don’t expect deep intellectual conversations over appetizers and drinks. If you are outgoing, just try to strike up conversations with people around you using your normal social skills. If you are, like me, more introverted and less good at small talk, the trick is to put on an act, act like you are comfortable and not worried about whether you know anybody. Find a place to sit or stand, make eye contact and say hi to the people around you, and respond if a more outgoing person tries to start a conversation. If you encounter “famous person” it is OK to say “oh, I’m excited to meet you, I’ve read your work.” It is, however, rude to then launch into a 10 minute criticism of their work. (No kidding, this actually happened to me at a reception at about 11 pm, 2 grad students–guess their genders–accosted me and wanted me to listen appreciatively while they told me what was wrong with my work.)
5. The person you try to talk to (famous or otherwise) may or may not respond to your conversational initiatives. Don’t take it personally if they don’t, just move on. Your own conversational initiatives can include asking their opinion of the conference or a panel or the convention city, you can certainly give the 30 second version of what you are working on (but avoid the 10 minute version as an opening gambit).
6. “This is more a comment than a question” is a standing joke. Trying to get noticed at someone else’s panel by giving an extended description of your own research just makes other people laugh at you. A short statement of the form “this session is so exciting, I am working on similar issues, here is an interesting question” and then trying to connect with people later to ask for their paper and offer your own goes over much better as colleagueship.
7. Advice about eating more cheaply at conventions. I usually find a grocery store near the hotel and have food in my room for meals I’m not sharing with others. There are also inexpensive food courts and sandwich type places where you can get food in most hotel districts (including near the convention center in Montreal). If you are flexible about what you eat, it is possible to get food by cruising receptions. There is typically lots of food at the opening night reception and at the reception after the presidential address. Section receptions vary in food quality and it is not uncommon to hear people passing the word about where the reception food is good. However, reception cruising is obviously easier when the receptions are near each other, and harder when they are scattered all around the city, as it seems like they will be in Montreal.
8. Although in my experience many senior people are generous about paying for meals for other people, there is another group of predatory diners (many quite affluent) who will order expensive food in a group and then at the end just say “let’s just split the check,” thus wrecking the budget of the low income person who ordered something cheap to keep their costs down. This is a warning. It is not easy to deal with this without “looking bad” to the predators, but I suggest that if you are worried about being stuck like this that you speak up right at the beginning and tell the wait staff and the table that you’d like a separate check.