Walk up and talk to random people at academic conferences - is that appropriate? As a graduate student, I am relatively new to my community. From my point of view, the best approach to get to know new people is randomly walking around and start conversations (with anyone, no matter what age or known/unknown). But is that appropriate at academic conferences? How do established researchers think about that? 

I am asking because in my previous conference visits, I often felt that people are annoyed or not interested when I just walked up and started a conversation. What would be better approaches for getting to know the community?
Absolutely. It helps, though, to be a little context sensitive. 

If you've just come from an amazing presentation and want to talk about it to someone else, then "did you just hear that great talk by/about X?" is a good way to start the conversation, better than just "Hello" or "Great conference, eh?"

If you know who the person is (they're speaking, you recognize them, etc), then greeting them ("Hi Kate," or "good morning, Dr. Gregory," according to your industry norms) and introducing yourself with context ("I'm Susan, I really enjoyed your book") is a fine first sentence but please, have a second sentence ready. After the person says "thankyou, that's very kind," what will happen next? A question is good here - perhaps there's something you've always wanted to ask - or you could go back to your opener for a complete stranger, "did you just hear that great talk by/about X?" 

Never open with something negative - "were you in that stinker of a session? Wasn't it the most boring thing ever?" - is right up there with the friend of mine who asked someone at a wedding "who is that obnoxious fat woman in the flowered dress and why is she even here?" only to be told "that's my mother." 

My biggest problem with conference conversations is when someone wants to have a conversation with me but doesn't actually have anything to say. That puts all the conversational effort on me and it's hard work. Should you find yourself in this situation, have a selection of questions you can ask:


is this your first time at [this conference]? (don't ask an industry luminary, or a speaker, this question)
are you enjoying the conference so far?
what is your favourite talk so far? (not good the morning of Day 1)
is there a particular session you're really looking forward to?


It's a little trickier to ask questions outside the scope of the conference, like "where are you from" or "where do you work?" because they often contain assumptions - you might assume someone is a student who has graduated, or is a prof when they aren't yet, or is in a lab when they are not, and it's possible to offend someone. So don't lead off with these. Often, stating your own circumstances is a way to prompt the other person to respond in kind: "I flew here from just outside Toronto. You?" or "I'm doing/finishing a Ph.D/postdoc/intership at ABC. You?" though again be careful if the person thinks you should know this thing about them, or if it's on their badge. You usually want to get a paragraph or two into conversation before discussing "real life" rather than the conference.

Well chosen questions not only move the conversation along, they can meet your other goals. Maybe you'll decide to attend a session you hadn't planned to. Maybe you'll learn about a great book or other resource related to something you enjoyed. Maybe you'll be invited to something, or exchange business cards, or al those other benefits of networking at conferences. None of those things can happen if you just say "hi" and leave it at that, the other person says "hi" and then the two of you stand there awkwardly, wondering why you're not having a conversation.

I read and enjoyed a book called How to Work a Room that emphasizes knowing what you want from encounters like this. Are you trying to find a job? Hire someone? Learn more about something? Tell people what you've discovered? For every want you bring to that conference, someone else brings the matching one and if you two find each other you will both be happy - but only if you tell them what you're looking for and what you have to offer. This is a skill you can learn, and marching up to strangers and saying "hi" is only the first step.