How to be a Good Seminar Participant

Berk Özler has some great advice on how to behave at seminars. My favorite is probably this one:

 Allow presenters time at the beginning to frame their talk without interruption. 

I don't think anyone has to be looking at their watches to see if it is exactly 10 minutes into the seminar, but let the presenter get through the introductory slides before asking an introductory question. And yes, I know you have some concerns about the identification strategy and you are eager to share them, but please, please, let the presenter explain the question and the identification strategy before voicing these concerns. Yes, you know this literature and maybe you read the paper, but it confuses everyone in attendance if we're discussing problems with the technique before knowing what the technique is. Just wait a few minutes. You are encouraged to ask those questions right after the baseline results. 

There is only piece of advice that I would tweak a bit. The post mentions a concern that men ask a lot more questions than women, and a solution to this is for men to "think twice before asking a question (“does it really need to be asked?” “is the answer coming up in a few slides?” “is it better to ask this when I meet the speaker later in the afternoon?”)." I would say that seminars would run more smoothly if everyone asked themselves these questions before asking a question. 

All of that said, I want to stress that I really enjoy lively seminars--both as a participant and as a presenter. I do not think the world would be a better place if only one or two perfectly though out questions were asked in seminars. I am just afraid that we sometimes spend too much time asking unnecessary questions at the beginning--perhaps throwing off the speaker--and we don't have enough time to ask the really juicy questions at the end. And that is a pity. 

From PhDcomics: