I find the plenary/invited speaker sessions to always be good value as you get to hear from the top researchers. Second best, in my opinion, are tutorials although it depends on how well organised they are. Workshops are great if you are presenting a paper because these days they are like small conferences and the audience is better targeted so your work is exposed to just the right people. The main conference is good for finding out what the community thinks are the best works for the moment. But usually the papers cover a wide breadth of topics so most might be of little interest and attending the presentations a waste of time; just look at the schedule and go to those presentations you care about.

I guess, you should also try to socialise and meet new people. I'm not good at socialising so for me this has always been the most uninteresting/difficult part of conference attendance.

Expect to get rejected. Don't take the conference too seriously, they are usually filled with people who fell very important, so it can be necessary to drink your brains out to get through it.

If you get accepted remember to make a poster.

I find poster sessions much more educational than most plenary presentations, since you can interact with the presenters.

If you would like to connect to companies, talk to the recruiters at the booths as early as possible (you still have a chance to get swag and potentially an invitation to the socials).

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The paper reviewing process is very noisy. There a decent chance your paper will get rejected. Don't take it too much to heart! It does not mean that your paper is bad, just that the process has flaws. Also: You are not the number of accepted papers in your PhD, and often quality beats quantity.

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Lastly: Talk to people! Message people in advance you might like to connect with - conferences are big these days, you rarely just run into someone that you are looking for. Also, chatting with PhD can get you some perspective (e.g. showing that the grass isn't always greener on the other side).

If you are presenting in the poster session, have the 20 second long summary of your poster. Most people are at the poster session for the free food or because a friend has a poster. If you can hook a casual observer with a pithy, quick summary, they may stick around for the 5 minute version. If you launch straight into the 5 minute version, people will pretend they can't hear you over the noise of the crowd.

Have three main points you want people to get from your talk. Structure the talk around them, and end explicitly with them. Practice practice practice. Then, take maximum advantage of the networking opportunities by attending as many sessions, mixers, and all that that you can. FOLLOW UP after the conference with people you met. Those will lead to priceless connections as you start your career.

Haha I'm sure u will get some good advice! I would say 1. Enjoy the trip 2. If you are aiming postdocs time to do some networking. 3. Enjoy the free food! 4. If you don't understand much about what other papers are about don't stress 😊

Where r u doing phd

If you are asking this, it means your lab has not already answered this question for you.

Which means you are in a bad lab.

Which means your paper will most likely be rejected from ICML.