Self-funding conferences

[Aloneinmanchester]

I work in an RG uni and we have just been told that our research budget has been halved (it's now only £500 per year) so effectively conference attendance (unless funded by a grant) is out of the question. Apparently this has already happened at other institutions and the people there are self-funding conference attendance, including overseas. I am really shocked that people would do this. Maybe I am not dedicated enough to my career but fuck me, no way am I paying hundreds to stay in some mediocre hotel in the arse end of nowhere to speak for 20 minutes and 'network' with a bunch of people that I don't like anyway. I already feel underpaid and overworked but I am actually shocked that people do this.

I pay and reclaim. There is always that anxiety that for some reason it won't be paid.

Won’t name the Institution but was 1.5k, then there was a formula that gave an amount dependant on how many PhD students you were supervising plus a base amount.

@GCAcademic regarding booking travel. I booked first class train tickets once for a few of us. Of course I was pulled in to be questioned , the tickets were cheaper than the regular second class travel the University travel agent would have booked plus we got free wine on the train. It was quite a few years ago when online booking of rail tickets was quite new. I just claimed it all back and also got the points on my credit card.

This is one of the issues with NHS, public sector, higher education procurement policies. They have their hands tied to ridiculous contracts.

I'm still waiting for my employer to give me the money they promised me. Because it's a special fund now, not the usual expenses system (which was annoying but at least you got your fecking money) it seems to be that I need to keep chasing it through multiple people, half who don't reply, and hoping someone will at some point pay me back somehow.

Maybe they are too busy handling all the redundancies... 🤔

That's the situation I prefer. I can choose my own flights etc, and then gert reimbursed.

My postdocs, on the other hand, use our travel agent, and their travel costs about twice what mine does.

@aterriblefish Im pleased you had a great time at your first conference. I'm just about to fork out £700 for a conference in Dublin, I've been humming and harring for a couple of weeks but you've kind of validated my decision that if it's a really enjoyable event it isnt so painful to part with the money, the conference is the best one for my profession so I hope it's worth it. I'm now trying to get a speaking part to see if I can claw back some of the money but if not I'll just have to suck it up and treat it like next year's holiday. Dublin is blimmin expensive!

I was VERY disappointed to find there was no payment even though I was invited to speak - I was presenting a run of the mill session and only plenary/key notes were paid. If you don't get to speak - take a poster. Hope you have a great time and meet some fun nice people and don't get so drunk like I did that I had to miss a whole morning...