For me, seminars are guided tours to a research topic. My best possible response to a seminar is, “I can’t wait to read the paper.” Unfortunately, the converse isn’t true. Given how awful most presentations are, I can’t really write off a project just because I have hated the seminar. But it does fall low on my “things to do”.
It’s interesting that this extends to many conference presentations. When I first started attending conferences I was annoyed that I got the proceedings when only when I arrived and not earlier.
As it turned out, I could have skipped most of the presentations and just read the papers. Most of the value in the conference was the social events spent talking with people with similar interests about their work.
It would be a much more efficient use of time to get the papers ahead of time and read them. Then the presentations could be a brief recap and discussion where readers might be able to ask insightful questions.
In short, don’t waste my time rehashing material I can get more efficiently from reading the paper.
For me, seminars are guided tours to a research topic. My best possible response to a seminar is, “I can’t wait to read the paper.” Unfortunately, the converse isn’t true. Given how awful most presentations are, I can’t really write off a project just because I have hated the seminar. But it does fall low on my “things to do”.
It’s interesting that this extends to many conference presentations. When I first started attending conferences I was annoyed that I got the proceedings when only when I arrived and not earlier.
As it turned out, I could have skipped most of the presentations and just read the papers. Most of the value in the conference was the social events spent talking with people with similar interests about their work.
It would be a much more efficient use of time to get the papers ahead of time and read them. Then the presentations could be a brief recap and discussion where readers might be able to ask insightful questions.
In short, don’t waste my time rehashing material I can get more efficiently from reading the paper.