Waking up in Quebec

I jolted at the sound my Nokia’s alarm and within a few seconds after opening my eyes I was staring in front of a large window overlooking a couple of blocks of business buildings. Yes, now I remember I am at the 14th floor of a hotel room in Quebec. I travelled to Norway to Canada to attend my first independent conference (May 31- June 3, 2015). I have attended some conferences between 2008-2012 but it was not directly related to my work. Therefore, I would call this my first conference in my PhD period. The International Conference on Immigration Integration and Inclusion (C4i) is the perfect venue for my paper about social integration of immigrant entrepreneurs in Norway. The paper is a result of my Master thesis research which is rooted in qualitative study. Participatory observation and life story interviews form the basis of qualitative data.

The conference is mainly organized by SBSN (Social and Behavioral Science network) and Laval University. C4i is one of the three parallel conferences in the event. The other two are International business and consumer research (IBCR) and International conference on Work and Employment studies (CIETE).

My presentation was on the first day (June 1) but in the last session between 4:30PM- 6PM. I tried my best to be well prepared for my talk but nothing can ease my pounding heartbeat. After delivering the first few lines of the introduction, I was convinced that the next 20 minutes will go smoothly. I was able to balance my emotions and deliver my presentation. I know I could have done better but I was glad for the experience. This conference push the ‘start’ button of a process that I have feared and worried about. But looking back, what was the anxiety for?

The topics and discussions of the sessions I attended evolves around integration and inclusion of immigrant population in various countries. There were various approaches such as from the social life point of view, economics data, labour market experiences and some government policies. Presenters range from various institutions and not just in academics. Most works give importance to inputs from qualitative research and relying the experiences of the immigrants themselves. There are also presentation based on international collaborations and projects comparing situations in different countries. Long as the day was, fruitful discussions and conversations between and after sessions were the most exciting part for me. I was not only interested with the topics and research works but I was keen to find out about the experiences of fellow PhD students in their career. What has been the process for them and what are their plans for the future. I was also curious about the various ways they tackle resources for their research and their time management.

I am quite pleased with the number of people I spoke with and got acquainted with in Quebec. In lieu of that, I made a simple website with a gallery of pictures I took for the conference. Noticing the absence of an official photographer, I took the chance to document moments of this conference. Whether or not I will be able to attend their next ones in the future, I am glad I came to share my work and get inspired by others.

Conference picture gallery: http://l-gwendolyn.wix.com/sbsn2015

Conference website: http://c4i.sbsn-conf.com/

Main conference website: http://www.sbsn-conf.com/