What is the difference between a Stata Conference and a Stata User Meeting?

[Roger Newson]

What (if anything) is the difference between a Stata Conference and a Stata Users' Group Meeting? StataCorp seem to have had Stata Conferences only in the US up till now, but, according to

https://www.stata.com/meeting/uk18/

they have just promoted the UK Stata Users' Group Meeting to a Conference as of 2018. Is anything special going on here that we should know?

Best wishes

Roger

[Nick Cox]

Not really. We sometimes get signals that people find it a little easier to get support and/or finance from their workplace if the meeting is called a conference than if the conference is called a meeting.

Either way, people should feel encouraged to meet and confer. The London gathering (there's another word) routinely unites people who wouldn't usually go to London for any other purpose.

Stata users' meetings (now conferences, whenever people are so minded) started in London, so are a British invention, like cricket, calculus (joint with Germany) and Harry Potter.

No, correct that: Harry Potter isn't an invention.

[Roger Newson]

Thanks to Nick for the clarification. If StataCorp and Timberlake both say it's a conference, then it probably is. I plan to amend my presentation accordingly, and look forward to seeing everybody there.

[Jessica Lum]

Hi all,

I am planning to submit an abstract for consideration for the 2018 Stata Conference. If I state that I wish to be considered for a long presentation and am not accepted, will I then automatically be considered for the short or the poster presentation?

Thanks,


Jessica

[Nick Cox]

#4 Jessica:

If you're asking about the Conference in Columbus, Ohio, https://www.stata.com/meeting/columbus18/ I would liaise directly with the organizers, none of whom I recognise as frequent contributors here.

If you are asking about that in London, just flag your preferences when submitting an abstract.

[Jessica Lum]

Thank you!

[Jessica Lum]

Sorry this is probably a dumb question but the page says that the abstracts are due by March 30th. You may or may not know but I thought I'd ask anyway. Does this mean that I can submit the abstract on the day of the 30th? I've reached out to the organizers but in case they don't reply, I thought I'd ask here as well.

Jessica

[Nick Cox]

My guess is that March 30 is fine.

[wbuchanan]

Roger Newson
One notable difference this year with the US meeting is the inclusion of poster presentations. Perhaps that may become a differentiating factor in determining whether the events get called user group meetings or conferences at some point in the future?