Dear Friends, Colleagues, Members of the IEMFS,
As it happens every year, the summer surprised us over piles of tests, exams, reviews, reports, BA and MA theses submitted in the very last moment. Some of us still have defences to attend or exams to administer, some are already free and enjoying the sun and the heat. Some will find this letter only in September when they are back from holidays but even if you are one of the extremely lucky people who can stay away from their e-mail boxes keep on reading – the matter will be just as important in two months’ time as it is now.
We would like to invite you to help us spread the word about our conference. The list of possible actions is quite long but if you do just one or two of these things it will be an immense help.
The best way is always the word of mouth. Tell your friends and colleagues about the conference. Write an e-mail and include the call for papers. Post a link on your social media. Mention the conference in a comment, including a link. If you are a member of an academic society or a Facebook group that posts calls for papers and their members may be interested, let them know.
The call for papers is available for download at this link but you may also direct your colleagues (and anyone who might chance upon your post) to the adverts that we have already placed here and here.
If you know about other websites that publish calls for papers in humanities, do let us know and we will place the ad ourselves.
If you are on Facebook you can do the following:
Go to our page or to our group, like and share the posts that promote the conference. It seems little and takes seconds but every “like” increases our reach. A typical post reaches between 50 and 100 people (out of almost 500 who follow the pages and over 300 members of the group) so we need a little boost.
Go to our Facebook event and click “Interested” (or “Going” if you intend to go) – every interested person increases our reach as well. Your Facebook friends will see that you are interested/going – perhaps some of them will want to join you!
If you are on Twitter you can follow the preparations for the conference either on the Twitter of the IEMFS or on the personal Twitter of the Chairman – Twitter is not a friendly medium these days so we decided against setting up a separate conference account. Every time you post or share a tweet connected with the conference, use this hashtag #apassagetoindia2024.
There must be other ways of reaching possible participants and I am quite sure you have ample experience in promoting the conferences which you organised. This is the moment to share these tricks, do not hesitate to let us know what else we can do to reach all Forsterians (and Forsterians-to-be) with our message.
Greetings from Warsaw
Krzysztof Fordonski