ASQ InfVoices – The Pros and Cons of Conferences

The topic in April 2015 of ASQ Influence Voices was “The Pros and Cons of Conferences”. This article is a guest post by Julia McIntosh of ASQ communications and the content included local events, electronic meetings, meeting a wide variety of people, social functions and networking. I remember Paul Borawski (previous CEO, ASQ) asked a question “What are your tips and advice for making the most of the events you attend?” My tips are taking photos with gurus for memory that belongs to Networking. The diagram showed below which were most of conferences I attended in the past.

I would like to summarize my ideas on the Pros and Cons of Conferences below.
Pros:
i) Catch the most updated trend in both industry and academic of Quality
ii) Networking with different country and culture professionals
iii) Present your finding and observations in your specific field
iv) Build up your own brand and status in your field
v) Open you mind to others
Cons:
i) Time consumption (usually used your own annual leave)
ii) Costly (Some conferences are very expensive, especially oversea conference included travel and hotel)

Anyway, I will join international conference at least annually to update myself. The summary of different conference I had attended was showed below.
International (Oversea):
i) Asia Network for Quality (ANQ) Congress (every year since 2003)
ii) ASQ World Conference on Quality and Improvement (WCQI) (60th and 65th anniversary)
iii) The International Conference on Quality (ICQ) 2014 in Tokyo, Japan
iv) The World Business Capability Congress was co-organized by Centre for Organisational Excellence Research (COER), New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation (NZBEF) and New Zealand Organization for Quality (NZOQ) in 2012
v) The 5th International Quality Manager Forum “TQM Uz-2012” was organized by IAQMA in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. (As Keynote Speaker)
vi) The 11th International Project – International Quality Manager Forum “TQM KAZ-2011” was organized by IAQMA in Almaty, Kazakhstan (As Keynote Speaker)
Regional (Local):
i) Testing and Certification Conference 2014 OUHK
ii) The Spring Research Conference on Systems Engineering and Management Science (SRC-SEMS)

iii) The International Symposium on Innovation Excellence and Practices (ISIEP 2013)

Reference:
A View from the Q - http://asq.org/blog/
20140409: ASQ InfVoices – Conference Tips - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/04/asq-infvoices-conference-tips.html