Ask a professor to attend a conference

I am an undergraduate student. In about a month, there will be a conference a professor of mine suggested that I go to. The subject of the conference is part of his research field and I am interested in doing a MSc with him later on. I was wondering whether there is a way of asking him to join me (or me to join him) while attending the conference without creating an awkward situation. What I mean to say is that I really think that being around him at the conference, sitting somewhere close to him will benefit myself in many ways (for example hear some comments during a speech, share thoughts etc.). Is there anyway I could ask him so we meet there and sit together or something? In no way, do I want him to take that in a wrong way.

I would really appreciate it if you could help me. Thank you.

Answer

I am going to answer specifically based on the explanation

He is already planning to attend and I want his permission to be near him during the conference.

I doubt anyone plans a conference visit down to that level of detail. Planning to be "near someone else" during a conference is rather counterproductive:

• You don't want to focus on following someone, you want to focus on the conference presentations.


• During the presentations, you could sit next to him, but what for? The options for talking or otherwise exchanging any meaningful information are rather limited while attending a talk.


• You might then plan for joining him during coffee breaks. But then, those are exactly the time when a large chaos starts (everyone leaves rooms and walks around) and all the spontaneous things come up (fetching beverages and food, running into old and new acquaintances that want to discuss something, starting a conversation about one of the talks just attended, going to the bathroom, ...) and all planning is in vain.

Of course, you could ask the professor beforehand: "I would like to discuss some topics with you during the conference, can we meet for that purpose?", but from the point of view of the professor, that will most likely be a NOOP, a bit of conversation with you that does not provoke any concrete reactions. Once again, because that level of detail can hardly be planned beforehand.

Rather than that, approach the professor spontaneously during the conference; that makes it likely that either he'll be free then, or he'll promise some free time in the near future (e.g. the next break).

This way, there will be no need for you to follow him all the time:

• You can pick the sessions you are personally most interested in.


• By not attending the same session as your professor, you can even contribute to gathering as much from the conference as possible (with respect to your whole "delegation", as different members of your team gather impressions from different talks).


• Maybe you can even find some contacts of your own (who might very well be quite a different set of contacts than who you might more or less get in touch with when just standing around next to your professor).