2012 Conference Survey Report
Each year, ICA conducts an evaluation survey among delegates who attended the annual conference. To ensure comparability across conferences, each year's survey is largely based on that of previous years. However, this year’s survey was considerably reshuffled. The full report on ICA’s Annual Conference in Phoenix, including qualitative comments, can be found on the ICA website.
The ICA office emailed all delegates of the Phoenix conference a request to complete the survey on 22 June 2012. The survey was accessible for completion until 20 July 2012. In total, 555 out of the 2,164 participants took part to the survey (26% response rate), which is in line with that of recent years.
Motivation to Participate. Four factors are overwhelmingly motivating participants: 'Keep up with current research,' 'Meet or socialize with colleagues, friends,' 'Improve my academic record through paper presentation or other activities.' This is consistent with past conferences.
Attendance & Enjoyment of Events. Overall, respondents were particularly pleased with the social atmosphere and meeting with colleagues (95% somewhat or very much enjoyed), the organization and the logistics (94%), the information before the conference (94%), and the hotel and venue (89%). One in five respondents attended the awards ceremony followed by the presidential address.
A quarter of the respondents have participated to one of the preconferences (but twice as many agree that preconferences are a valuable addition) and two thirds attended at least one theme session.
A comfortable majority of respondents agree that the quality of many papers was first rate and that the theme sessions were valuable. A short majority agree that the extended sessions were valuable and allowed in depth discussions, that the book exhibit was very useful to them, that the plenary sessions were valuable, that there was adequate time for discussions at the end of the sessions and that the quality of some of the posters was first rate. Two thirds of respondents also agree with the statement that there were too many interesting sessions programmed simultaneously, which is the expression of a frustration as much as an implicit recognition that there was an overwhelming offer of appealing activities offered. About half of the respondents say they would like a hard copy of the program at the next conference. Panel participants not showing up at sessions is seen as problematic by a quarter of the respondents.
Future Programming. Respondents would particularly like to see more 'Formal debates between scholars' and 'Competitive paper sessions' at the next ICA conference. 30% of respondents wish for more 'Panel proposals with full papers' and 28% more 'Programming devoted to professional issues.' 'High density panels' and 'Extended sessions' show the largest proportions (over one third) of respondents asking either for 'less' or 'not at all' at the next conference. A quarter of the respondent wish for less or no 'Interactive poster sessions,' 'Miniplenaries,' and 'Virtual conferences.' Additional suggestions received for future programming can be seen in the full evaluation.
Virtual Conference. Few respondents have answered the questions related to the Virtual Conference, reflecting the large proportion of conference attendees who did not engage significantly with it. Only half of the respondents (51%) say they were even aware of the virtual conference opportunities in Phoenix. Those who did are rather positive when assessing their experience, the majority agreeing that navigation was easy, that the available content was clearly identified, that the information was usefully presented, that keynote addresses and workshops were easy to find and could easily be accessed.
Mobile App. The new conference mobile application offered to participants was very well received. Developed on the Guidebook platform, it offered handy tools to search the program and help with various aspects of the conference. The application was found useful by the vast majority of respondents who downloaded it. The most frequent suggestion for improving the mobile application was for better search capabilities, particularly to by names and keywords. Other suggestions included availability for other OS and mobile devices; clearer instructions for downloading it; improved integration between the app and calendars, and more.
Demographics. There are more women than men among respondents (236 vs 190). Over a third of respondents are students, while 30% are senior faculty and 25% junior faculty. A majority of respondents are from North America (63%), while the next largest region is Europe (23%). All Divisions and Interest Groups are represented in the sample, with a distribution largely consistent with that of the membership.