Academic Conferences 101: Budgeting Your Time, Energy, and Money

Tutorial and Budget Spreadsheet Template

For better or worse, conferences can be a significant aspect of one’s academic career. They are a great way to share your work and receive feedback on new directions for, or perspectives on, your own research, expand your professional network, reconnect with friends and colleagues, and see a new city. They are also a huge commitment in terms of time and money, even if you aren’t taking the podium or standing next to a poster. Where does one even begin?

Our hope in providing this document is to demystify the conference process ever so slightly, and is informed by many years of attending academic conferences– as a broke, first-gen student as well as a professional with access to funding– as well as many years of professional experience in event logistics and management in academic and industry settings. Like most things in academia, this is something people just kind of stumble through, and depending on your circumstances, “stumbling through'' might not be an option for financial or health reasons. This document, and the spreadsheet template that accompanies it, is the product of many years of learned lessons, overdrafted bank accounts, stiff backs, grumbly tummies, and frustrated emails. We hope that we can save you at least a few of those moving forward.

This is written with domestic (US) conferences in archaeology, anthropology, classics, and history in mind, but the information here can be useful for students in other disciplines, as well as for other purposes such as research or travel grant applications/planning or personal travel. It’s a beneficial skill to have, and we are happy to pass it along, but we ask that you do not share this document without citation, and that you not duplicate any part of it or the budget template without explicit permission from The Dirt Podcast. Thanks, and let’s dive in!

What even is an academic conference?

Do I have to go to a conference?

What will it cost for me to attend a conference? 

How does this budget spreadsheet template work? Why is it so complicated?

Now that I have an idea of how much it will cost, how do I cough up all that cash?

Academic conferences, or annual meetings, are multi-day events centered around ongoing work in a given discipline or subfield that consists of, at minimum, invited keynote speakers, short presentations, and social events. A one-day conference might be referred to as a symposium, if hosted by a department or student organization. Conferences are frequently organized by an independent professional academic organization, although some organizations manage joint meetings, such as those of the Archaeological Institute of America and Society for Classical Studies, the Society for Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion, or the Paleoanthropology Society  alternating between Society for American Archaeology and American Association of Biological Anthropologists meetings.

Large professional conferences generally involve the following components:

• Concurrent sessions. Depending on the size and breadth of the conference, anywhere between one and dozens of sessions will be conducted at a time. In some cases, organizers open a call for sessions many months before the conference, and organizers submit abstracts for a session consisting of their own work and work of others (usually colleagues they already know, but not always). In other cases, a predetermined topic is announced, and individuals are invited to submit paper abstracts. Some meetings accept multi-year session abstracts, where a specific topic will be addressed from multiple angles over a longer term. Whatever the terms of the call for papers/sessions, abstracts are reviewed by member-volunteers and subject to approval prior to acceptance. Conference papers are intended to be unpublished work that is new, innovative, helpful to audience members, and that could benefit from feedback and questions to inform the work ahead that will ideally lead to publication in a thesis, article, or book. That feedback is also the root of most “I have a question, but more of a comment” jokes, and sometimes sessions can get a bit spicy. 

• Distinguished lectures. Keynotes, presidential addresses, and similar events are opportunities for an influential senior member of the discipline to address attendees en masse. These lectures usually focus on the discipline as a whole, and serve as a message underscoring the importance of current work, potential for future progress, or a need to reflect on the past. These usually coincide with or immediately precede a reception, which…

• Receptions and social events. As you continue your career, there will be more schools you attended, teams you worked with, and friends you’ve lost touch with. Conferences are sometimes the only opportunity you have to see people that mean a lot to you personally and professionally, and so organizers capitalize on that. Sessions run from the early morning to late afternoon, and then after a lull, evening activities pick up. Receptions frequently reflect alumni associations, affinity groups, and interest groups within the organization, but happy hours are organized either in advance or ad hoc for excavation teams, cohorts, or other groups. Luncheons and coffee hours are also organized along these same lines, and all can be found in the program or by poking around the conference website or Twitter. Sometimes a nearby institution hosts a reception off-site, and those can be quite glamorous (by conference standards, of course).

• Networking and mentoring. There are some people who can work any room they enter, and perhaps for them any place features networking. For the rest of us, conferences frequently feature opportunities that intentionally facilitate connections between junior scholars and potential mentors. Mixers, speed mentoring, and social hours are sponsored by student sections or affinity groups and recruit established or senior members who are willing and able to help others navigate the field. For more informal, or smaller scale, networking opportunities, consider asking someone you’ve admired for a while or whose work interests you if they’d be willing to meet with you.

• Exhibitors. More likely than not, there will be an exhibit hall, with anywhere from a few to hundreds of booths. The most numerous category of exhibitor is likely to be academic presses, who are there not only to advertise and sell books, but to speak with people currently under contract for upcoming books, and to connect with potential new authors. Likewise, there will be academic journals there for the same reason. There will also be plenty of professional organizations, schools/programs, services or tools relevant to attendees. The exhibit hall is a great place to run in to old friends, pick up a few thousand branded items, and score a free book or two. That space often also features tables and chairs for those impromptu meetings or sneaking in some work between sessions.

• Posters. Poster galleries are usually located in a high-traffic area, and consist of student work summarized in a highly-visual format and printed to 48”x36” (or proportionate). These can be individual or group-designed, and there are designated times in the program where authors hang out by their posters and answer questions or otherwise discuss their work. Outside that time, posters remain up and visible to passersby. In addition to being less scary than presenting a paper, posters are a great opportunity for students to share their work when it’s still in progress or just one part of a much larger project or initiative. 

• Excursions and cultural events. Some conferences offer add-on excursions for an additional fee to the standard program, to a nearby archaeological site or other point of interest. Some meetings come with admission to a museum or other discipline-relevant space. When conferences are held at resorts, attendees often have access to other amenities. Others feature movie screenings, art installations, musical performances, or trivia nights. 

• Job recruiting. Some fields and associations facilitate formal academic job recruitment at conferences, in the form of providing meeting space (often hotel rooms, unfortunately) in which departments can conduct interviews of candidates in a systematic way that reduces recruitment expenses for all potential employers. In other cases, a conference makes sense as a place to meet potential candidates, and in a way we’re all possibly running into our future boss or coworkers at conferences!

That question makes for a punchy section title, but alas, we cannot answer it for you. What we can do is pose some further questions to help you figure it out for the conference you’re considering.

• Is this the right venue for me to present or inform my work? You’re not obligated to present at a conference in order to attend it, but funding is often contingent on it. If you’ve never presented at a conference, small conferences such as regional conferences or graduate symposia are great (and less expensive) opportunities to grow comfortable with public speaking and develop a style and voice that is uniquely yours. Even if you want to jump in feet first and present at a huge conference, take heart in the fact that even in a meeting of thousands of people, attendees are spread across dozens of concurrent sessions and it’s almost impossible that you’ll look up from your notes to see a ballroom full of eyes staring back at you. If you are considering presenting, think about the benefit beyond a line added to your CV. Admittedly, that’s a powerful motivator, but there will always be future meetings! Are there potential collaborators, or potential mentors, who will be in attendance and might provide helpful feedback? Beyond your own potential contribution, are there special sessions or addresses that speak to your own interests and goals? 

  
  

• Are there people I want to meet? Look at the preliminary program, if it’s available to you, or look for specific scholars on Twitter to see if they’ve announced upcoming sessions or papers. If you’re applying to graduate programs or fieldwork opportunities, conferences can be a great opportunity to get a sense of whether you gel with would-be colleagues. Make a list of people you’d like to meet with and reach out to them a few weeks in advance– even if they (or you) aren’t going, it’s a perfect opportunity to open a conversation and set up a Zoom meeting or call down the line.Your list should go beyond people! Look at the exhibitors list and see if there are any booths you want to visit. Publishers and university presses offer sales of 20%-40% off current/select titles, and often are willing to offload copies at the end of the conference for even steeper discounts to charming and interested parties rather than pack them up and ship them back to the warehouse. That said, you don’t have to attend to save money on books— the discount code works just as well on their website. Cut out the  middle person and follow University Press Sale Bot on Twitter! 

  On the other hand, think about whether there are people you don’t want to see. In some cases, like a friend with whom you had a falling out or a particularly not-amicable ex, a quick scan of the program for their names can help you feel like you have a plan to avoid running in to them in the exhibit hall or line for the bathroom (been there!) or at least not be caught by surprise if you happen to see them. 

  Some circumstances extend far beyond awkwardness and stung pride, though. Conferences offer several conditions that facilitate predatory behavior among those who groom, harass, and/or assault junior and other vulnerable scholars. They can take on a “spring break” feeling, where people break out of their normal routine in a different place, and the happy hours, receptions, reunion parties, and excursions create plenty of opportunities for people to be overserved. None of this justifies or excuses predatory or otherwise harmful behavior, and the solution is not your responsibility, it’s a systemic change that requires accountability and consequences. If you have concerns about someone or if you have been abused by someone whom you expect will be at the conference, identify the ombudsperson of the organization and contact them, or reach out to a similar office on your home campus for specific guidance. Before disclosing anything, confirm their policy toward confidentiality, as well as whether they are an office of record (which means that notes, correspondence, and other content is saved, available for review, and can become part of archives). This is important to determine in order to minimize– and ideally prevent– retaliation against you and/or other victims or survivors. Ultimately, your safety is the most important thing in this equation, and the reality is that most conferences have a spotty record when it comes to preventing and addressing harassment and violence.

• Where am I going to sleep? Often, the best answer is “in my own bed.” An annual meeting happening in your own city, or within reasonable driving or transit distance, is very different from one held at a resort or in a tourist destination. Lodging is often the most significant category of expense in budgeting (we’ll get there!) and you are going to need your sleep, so this should be something you consider carefully. Do you have friends or family within commuting distance? Do your friends have friends? Are you okay with sharing a bed in a hotel room with two beds? Are you okay with using services like Airbnb to rent a room or share an apartment with several other people?

  
  

• What else will be going on in my life then? Conferences have a way of happening when everything else does, or maybe that’s all of life. Consider the big picture of your schedule and its demands when you’d be attending. No matter what stage you’re at in your career, you probably could benefit from saying no sometimes. Is this one of those times? Or is this something to say yes to and prioritize over other opportunities (expenses, commitments, etc) that might come along over the next few months?

  
  

• What if everyone else is going? First of all, that’s probably not true. Even if it is, unless everyone is paying your bills and is covering all your conference expenses, their decision to attend does not necessitate yours. Everyone has different material circumstances, as well as degrees of comfort with and access to lines of credit. Even beyond the financial aspect, some people flourish in large, nebulous groups, while others prefer small, personal settings. Do your best to be honest with yourself and, if you decide against going this year, remember that FOMO has an exceptionally low mortality rate.

  
  

• Can I afford it? This guide will help you approach that question from a financial perspective, but there are other angles to consider. Would planning, preparing, and attending a multi-day event in another city put too great a strain on your schedule in the depths of the semester? Is it being held in a place where you would feel at greater risk of harm from businesses, strangers, police, or the legal system? Do you require accommodations that the organizers/venue appear to have no mechanism in place to provide, and there seems to be no responsive, good faith effort to make this event accessible?

  After considering all of these questions and the budget guide that follows, the answer might be no. You are certainly not the only person to have reached that conclusion! If this is an organization in which you feel invested, look to places like Twitter or Discord for others who are working to effect change from within, and seek out allies in positions of influence. As discouraging as academia can feel (and be), there still are many senior academics with clout and security who are committed to lifting as they climb. Additionally, consider looking for other means of connection and knowledge-sharing that respect your lived experience, and seek out organizations that uphold their obligation to serve all members of their organization.
  

We thought you’d never ask! It might feel like the easy answer here is, “as little as humanly possible,” but that approach can set you up for some major headaches (or worse). As stressful as it can be, it is better to go in knowing what it could cost so that you can do your best to plan accordingly. Please trust us on this one. 

When starting an estimated budget, remember that conference expenses align with the following categories:

• Lodging

• Meals and incidentals

• Airfare (or train fare, mileage, or car rental)

• Local travel

• Registration and membership

For travel within the United States, an entire agency of the federal government, the General Services Administration, is responsible for (among other things) figuring out how much it costs to sleep and eat in any given city/region in the contiguous US. The Department of Defense sets rates for Alaska, Hawaii, and US territories/possessions/military installations. Outside the US, that information is maintained by the Department of State. Public and private institutions often use GSA and State Department information  as a basis for their own per diem budgets. Per diem rates should be taken as a maximum cost, to inform the relative expense of a given destination if one were to eat all meals in restaurants and stay in a 4-star hotel. 

To determine the per diem rate of a destination in the contiguous US, visit the GSA website and select your state and city, if applicable. The GSA rate year runs from October-September, so you might need to consult a different year (future or previous) depending on when your event is scheduled. For each state, a list of metropolitan areas will be provided, as well as a Standard Rate for locations outside the city (smaller towns, rural areas). Results will list lodging rates first, then meals and incidentals.  

Department of Defense rates for Alaska, Hawaii, and US overseas possessions, territories, and military installations. Similar logic applies, it’s just that the number is produced by a different agency. 

For locations outside the United States, visit the State Department Office of Allowances site and select your destination country. Here, “Post Name” will refer to the metropolitan area, and “Other” corresponds with the Standard Rate. 

If you’re looking at this to inform budgets for longer term travel, like for fieldwork, note that a reduced daily rate (often 75%) applies to travel beyond 30 days when using federally determined per diem. This is considered long-term travel, for travel beyond one month but less than one year. After that, you’ve just… moved away.

Lodging. This number reflects the nightly, per person hotel rate and reflects peak/shoulder/low seasons. Expect conference group rates to be around this number, but do not expect it to reflect taxes and fees. The further in advance you make a reservation and the more creative you can afford to be in sharing space, the lower you can drive that cost down.

Meals and incidental expenses. The GSA results will provide a meals and incidental expenses (M&IE) total, followed by a breakdown across meals. In this context, “incidentals” refers to expenses like tips for porters or coat check. The first and last day of travel is 75% of the total, to account for the likelihood that the traveler is eating at least one meal at home and/or will be served a meal on their flight. 

For State Department results, only the M&IE total will be listed. To determine the breakdown, consult the M&IE Breakdown table on the GSA website. Another way to think about meal expenses is to budget 15% of your daily maximum budget for breakfast, 25% for lunch, and 40% for dinner, and the remainder for incidental expenses (or eliminate it from your budget altogether).

An important thing to note is that in many convention centers, all food options are contracted out to a single entity and no outside food or drink is permitted, like in a sports venue. This means that meal options can be limited and will be more expensive than outside the center. It’s always smart to have a water bottle and/or travel mug to take advantage of coffee/tea service, and consider packing sneaky snacks to get you through the day! 

A last tip regarding per diem for lodging and meals: if you are eligible for or seek reimbursement for your expenses, you cannot claim per diem for that category. It’s an either/or situation– either you’re reimbursed for your receipts (your “actuals”) after the fact, or you receive per diem in advance. 

Airfare and other travel. Google Flights is a great tool for establishing a baseline cost, but it will not necessarily yield the best itineraries or most accurate prices. Whatever you use, it’s helpful to look at your travel dates (if available) and the same day of week depart/return six weeks from the day you’re searching, to get a better sense of potential cost. Remember that flight costs increase as your travel date approaches, so unless you’re ready to book right away, consider padding that estimate a bit. 

If you intend to travel via personal car, the standard mileage rate determined by the IRS is 58.5 cents per mile for 2022. This is designed to consider expenses incurred toward  gas, insurance premiums, and general wear and tear on your car. It’s helpful to incorporate into your budget even if you’re not submitting an expense report or claiming it against your taxes. 

For airport transfers, a great first stop is your destination airport’s website. In addition to information about public transit options, frequently they list approved airport taxis, as well as policies regarding standard flat-rate fares for airport transfers. Also check fare estimates for ride share apps like Lyft and Uber to gain a sense of cost, even if you do not intend to use them. If you are staying at a hotel, inquire with their front desk about airport shuttle options. Often they are complimentary, or considerably less expensive (and more straightforward) than a taxi or rideshare.

Local travel. If you’re considering travel to a destination with robust public transportation, look at fares between your lodging and the venue, as well as any off-site programming you anticipate attending. If you anticipate needing to travel via car at any point (carrying materials, after happy hour, no transit), get a sense of what that will cost. 

Registration and membership. As a general rule, the earlier you can register, the better. Student member rates will always be advantageous (be prepared to provide proof of student status), and some schools hold institutional memberships that subsidize costs to their students.

Many organizations offer reduced or waived registrations to volunteers. This might be the right move for you, but be sure to ask questions and gain clarity of what is expected of volunteers to ensure that it’s as positive and productive an experience for you as it can be! 

Conferences are very expensive, yes, but for what little it’s worth, the hospitality and events industry is astronomically expensive all around. Nobody at the organization is swimming in coffers of coins like Scrooge McDuck, and even though it is a profitable industry that tends to separate money from people who don’t have much to spare, the employees you will encounter as a “customer” are inevitably hard-working, poorly paid individuals who care deeply about the discipline and have very little agency in the larger picture. So, please, be kind. They probably get it better than you can imagine. 

Now that you know how much it could cost, let’s put it all together in one place so you can feel a bit more confident that you know what you’re getting into. Plus, if you have a tidy and well reasoned budget spreadsheet that lays out exactly how much you need and for what purpose, you will be all the more appealing to potential funding sources! 

Stay calm, you’ve already done a lot of the work! Let’s walk through this together, and you’ll see that the template does all the math, so you can just plug in the numbers from the conference website and government rates. As an example, let’s plan to attend the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, which will be held in Seattle in November 2022. 

First things first, save a copy of the Conference Budget Worksheet Template (.xlsx) to your desktop, or save a copy in the cloud. Do not edit the second page, “Sources.” Doing so will break the whole thing, and you’ll have to re-download the template and start over.

Next, update the location details. In the example shown below, we’ve updated cells C11:C15, for total and breakdown. Travel day rate will update when you enter the total. If you reduce your budget, enter your custom distributions for each meal and incidentals, and the GSA Max Rate for the location. 

For AAA, we’ve decided to stay at the Sheraton Seattle, which according to the meeting website, has a group rate of $229/night. Some hotels have different rates for additional guests, so update “Quad” and “Double” as appropriate. If you’re splitting a vacation rental or other accommodations, enter your nightly share in the Single - Per Room field for it to populate correctly. 

A Google search of “seattle wa hotel tax rate” directs us to the Visit Seattle website, which states the tax rate for hotels is 15.7%, as well as a $2/night surcharge for the Seattle Tourism Improvement Area. Put a pin in that!

Now that our rates are set, we can determine our specific needs. Take a look at the following example, and we’ll explain:

• We plan to arrive on Wednesday, November 9. That’s a travel day, so we selected “Yes” for Travel Day and no other meals/incidentals. If you’re using your own values and not GSA per diem, select your relevant meals and ignore Travel Day. 

• We’ll crash at a friend’s place that night, so no need for lodging. They’re also picking us up from the airport (a good friend!), so no airport transit costs. 

• The following day, we’ll be on our own for all our meals, and then checking into the conference hotel, which we’re sharing with one person. 

• For our remaining days, breakfast is included in our room rate, so we haven’t selected breakfast for any of those days. We’re also adding the $2/night surcharge under “Other costs” for the nights we stay in our hotel, but this can also apply to resort fees, wi-fi charges, or little charges that can add up quickly. Check your reservation or the pre-confirmation review page of your chosen hotel booking tool. 

• Since we’re staying at the conference hotel, we don’t anticipate any local transit expenses.

• Our former adviser is treating us to dinner Saturday night, so we’re only on the hook for our lunch that day. 

• Sunday is another travel day, and having exhausted our local friend’s goodwill when we arrived, we’re paying for a taxi to the airport that morning. 

By selecting what expenses apply to us, the formula of the spreadsheet will generate subtotals that populate the total estimate breakdown in the upper right of the spreadsheet. To those, we add our registration cost (from the meeting website), as well as our estimated flight cost (from Google Flights).

From there, we see that our maximum total estimated budget is $1,621.93. This breakdown can show us where we can reduce costs (M&IE, adding another roommate to the room), and where we can’t really (airfare).

Increasingly, organizations are making financial assistance opportunities known on conference websites, and generally come in the form of waived or reimbursed registration fees. Continuing with the AAA example, they have an entire page dedicated to this topic, including a spreadsheet of financial assistance opportunities. 

Depending on the resources available at your home institution, you may be eligible for funding to cover your airfare and lodging as well, but as we mention above, that is often to support presenting and not only attending. Be wary of arrangements that ask you to pay up front and be reimbursed later. Whenever possible, inquire about getting a travel advance: this can be 50-80% of the estimated budget paid upfront, to be reconciled and rounded out with reimbursement later. Also, see whether it is possible to have your department or funding body pay directly for expenses, to eliminate the step of reimbursement and ease burden on both your wallet and staff involved in financial processing. It’s very easy for reimbursements to be cast adrift in an ocean of bureaucracy, so if you do have to pay up front and be reimbursed later, be sure to ask for an estimated timeframe for your reimbursement and follow up when it’s passed. The absolute minimum you should— and must!— do is ask plenty of questions about the timeline and who is responsible for each element of the process.

Other opportunities for funding include:

• Black Trowel Collective, a mutual aid organization that distributes microgrants for archaeology students and professionals, $5-$300 

• Humans Against Poor Scholarships (HAPS Fund)’s Black Scholars Matter Initiative, which offers grants to support Black undergraduate researchers financially and professionally; conferences eligible for this grant are ARCE (Egyptology)  and ASOR (Near Eastern Studies)

• The Dirt Podcast’s Pass the Mic initiative

Did this guide help you? Are there other subjects you would like to see covered in future guides? Do you have leads for other funding opportunities, or resources for making this guide more useful for more people? We want to hear all about it! Contact us, or email us at thedirtpodcast@gmail.com

To cite this page, please use:

Zambelli, Amber. “Academic Conferences 101: Budgeting Your Time, Energy, and Money..” The Dirt Podcast, https://thedirtpod.com/conferences101.