The conference question conundrum

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Around this time last year, I had attended the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting, one of the largest genetics conferences. The week was full of many wonderful talks, but in particular, one of the plenary talks stuck with me the most: Scalable computational quantification of gender representation and behavior at ASHG. Natalie Telis and colleagues conducted a study where they analyzed demographics and participation data from the 2014–2016 ASHG meetings and found that women tended to ask fewer questions during conferences — even in cases where the majority of attendees were women. Before the presentation, I had never noticed this pattern. However, after pondering it for a bit, I realized that I’ve seen (and followed) this exact trend.

Asking questions helps you truly understand what the speaker is presenting. It can be a great way to develop your thinking about your own research as well. More than anything though, it is a way to participate in the conversation. And one of the great benefits of attending conferences is having these conversations that you might not be able to have just at your home university.

In addition, asking can be very beneficial for the presenter. I’ve been told that one can gauge how well a presentation went just by the types of questions asked. Additionally, through questions we can also share ideas; I know that I’ve changed parts of my projects after being prompted by an audience member’s question.

Asking questions helps you truly understand what the speaker is presenting. It can be a great way to develop your thinking about your own research as well. More than anything though, it is a way to participate in the conversation. And one of the great benefits of attending conferences is having these conversations that you might not be able to have just at your home university.

In addition, asking can be very beneficial for the presenter. I’ve been told that one can gauge how well a presentation went just by the types of questions asked. Additionally, through questions we can also share ideas; I know that I’ve changed parts of my projects after being prompted by an audience member’s question.

However, I don’t feel like as much emphasis needs to be placed on the “why”, but more so on the “how”. It can be very intimidating to ask a question in front of an audience, especially at larger conferences where you may be in an auditorium or you have to walk down to the microphone to ask your question. Or if you are more junior and are worried that you don’t have something to say. Here are some bits of advice that I’ve used myself that may be useful for others when asking questions at conferences.


  1. Write down a question(s) for every presentation I always find it helpful to write down potential questions for every talk, even if I don’t intend on asking all or any of the questions. It is useful to start by thinking about how the presenter’s research can be linked to your current research. Not only is this great for helping your own work, but I find that it always helps me understand and remember the presentations more easily. Even if the presentation seems distant from what you’re working on, you’d be surprised how many of the ideas presented can be applied to what you’re doing!

  2. Start at a smaller event Some large conferences may have hundreds of people during the larger talks, which can be quite intimidating at first. Starting small and asking questions at smaller meetings or even within lab meetings can feel less intimidating since you will probably be with people you know.

  3. Ask the presenter after the session Sometimes you think you have a really good question, but you’re still not sure if this would seem like a bad question to ask. Many people fear that they will ask “dumb” questions or questions that are too basic. However, more often than not, you might find that the questions you wrote down and didn’t ask, someone else probably asked the same questions during the Q&A. This shows that there are many people thinking along the same lines as you — which supports the fact that you did have a really insightful question! But if you’re still uneasy about asking it in public, then oftentimes the presenter will take questions 1:1 after the session at the front. This can be a lot less intimidating and a great first step! But just know that if you were thinking about a specific question, then there were probably many other audience members as well, so it can be useful to ask it out loud during the Q&A so that others can hear the answer too.

  4. Sit near the front of the room One of the things that I find most intimidating when asking questions is when everyone turns and looks at me while I’m speaking — it’s a lot of eyes on you. The best solution I’ve found for this is to simply sit in the front. Thus, when you’re speaking and everyone turns to look at you, you don’t see them! And if you sit in the front row, it’s almost as if it’s just you and the speaker conversing. To tag onto this, in settings where you have to walk up to the microphone in order to ask a question, I find it helpful to sit next to the microphone. Though simple, again it can feel nerve-wracking weaving in and out of rows and walking up a long aisle just to reach the microphone. Thus, if you sit next to it, the few feet journey to reach it takes the nerves away.

  5. Introduce your question with some context Whenever I ask a question, I try to first briefly state the context of my question. For example, one can say “In the previous slide, you mentioned that XXX. I was wondering if [insert question here]”. Not only does this help give a frame of reference for the speaker and other audience members, but opening with a simple statement, as opposed to just my question, can feel more natural and conversational. It’s comforting in a sense, to start off with something that you can simply reiterate and then adding your specific piece after you’ve started talking. (It also doesn’t hurt to tell the speaker that they did a good job before asking your question!)

  6. Introduce your question with some context Whenever I ask a question, I try to first briefly state the context of my question. For example, one can say “In the previous slide, you mentioned that XXX. I was wondering if [insert question here]”. Not only does this help give a frame of reference for the speaker and other audience members, but opening with a simple statement, as opposed to just my question, can feel more natural and conversational. It’s comforting in a sense, to start off with something that you can simply reiterate and then adding your specific piece after you’ve started talking. (It also doesn’t hurt to tell the speaker that they did a good job before asking your question!)


All in all, I feel like most of the bullet points listed above are not groundbreaking but I do think they may be helpful. When everyone feels confident and comfortable to ask questions, this means more people feel welcome at the table. And if you’re going to ASHG 2018, hopefully there’s lots of good questions in store!

p.s. Here’s an interesting article that follows: http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2017/10/women-ask-fewer-questions-men-conference-talks-new-studies-suggest