Hello, this is a blog about my experience attending a two-day Learning Disability conference at Queens University, Belfast. I was not presenting formally at this conference; the main purpose of my attendance was to network, help me start talking about my research project and to get feedback from stakeholders.
At the time of my attendance at the conference I was in my third-year of a part Professional Doctorate programme in Health and Social Care. I am a Learning Disability Nurse by background and my research ideas are around people with learning disabilities and what care means to them. My plan is to use a photovoice methodology which is a participatory action research method where participants use photographs to tell their stories and communicate their experiences.
I was quite nervous about talking out loud to strangers about my research as I had only really spoken about it with my supervisors and colleagues. My thoughts on the flight on the way to Belfast were that I was worried that my project would be difficult to explain, it would not make sense to them, or they would think that it was not interesting or worthwhile.
When I arrived at the conference, I was allocated a seat and table in a booth in the corner of a very large hall. I had taken a poster with me that said my name and “ask me about my research”.
The first half of day one was quite hard, and I felt nervous and awkward. I had spoken to a few people who had approached my table and asked about my research. They mainly nodded and smiled and said that they liked the idea but did not really have any more comments or questions. I found this quite difficult, and I started to feel that I was right to be worried earlier on the flight and that I was not explaining it very well. I felt I was losing confidence at this point.
I was then approached by a person who commented that they thought that my idea was “broad”. I was aware of this, and I agreed that my overarching idea is broad, but I then felt that I needed to defend the reasons for this. I then started to explore with the person in more detail the methodology that I was using and how stakeholders will shape and focus the question as part of the participatory methodology. The person then said that they could see why it was broad, and they showed a lot of interest in learning more about my project.
I think that this was the turning point for my trip. Following this question, I became more confident and started mingling with the delegates instead of being stuck at the table. When talking about my project I started to include a little more detail about the question and how this links to my choice of methodology. People seemed to really understand what I was trying to achieve.
The conference was a success, and I achieved what I set out to do. The trip ended with some good feedback including constructive comments, considerations and different angles that I had not thought about, in particular relating to how culture impacts care choices and experiences.
Moving forward I have grown in confidence and find it easier to adapt to talk to difference audiences about my research project. I have learned that it is important to be proactive in networking and asking for feedback.
