Dear CAUTHE member and/or past CAUTHE Conference Delegate,

We invite you to participate in a study titled ‘Academic Conference Attendance – motivations, expectations and barriers’ being conducted by Dr Judith Mair (Monash University) and Dr Leonie Lockstone-Binney (Victoria University).

Conferences and conventions are an important part of the events industry, and academic conferences are particularly important for a number of reasons, including their diversity, their popularity and the fact that for many academics, attendance at domestic and international conferences is an important part of fulfilling their job description and enhancing their research profile. In the current economic climate, with shrinking travel budgets and other opportunities to network with peers (for example, via social media), it is timely to consider the conference attendance of academics and barriers to it. We do this in reference to the annual CAUTHE Conference, with which you’ll probably be familiar. In addition, to these broader considerations, we would also appreciate your thoughts in relation to the CAUTHE Conference, your motives for attending and suggestions for the future running of the conference. The findings of this study will likely be presented at the 2014 CAUTHE Conference and a summary report made available on the CAUTHE website in early 2014. The research has the full support of the CAUTHE Executive.

The online survey should take 10-15 minutes to complete. If you are considering responding, please read through the following Explanatory Statement.

I confirm that I have read the explanatory statement and that by clicking on the participate link I consent to participate in the survey.

Thank you in advance for considering this request.

We look forward to seeing you at CAUTHE 2014 in Brisbane.

Kind regards,

Judith and Leonie