When Ipscon-2015 notification/ brochure was released in mid-2015, we, being the freshers to MD Pharmacology, were excited to attend this national level Conference as we heard a lot about IPSCON standards and the benefits and knowledge that we gain from attending this conference from our seniors, assistant professors, associate professors and professors of our department.
Hearing all the positive feedback, we registered, submitted our abstracts eagerly waited for the Main event. After a long wait we received confirmation mail stating that our abstracts has been accepted. Seeing this we were on cloud nine..! (Isn’t it is a dream come true for freshers like us to present a paper/poster in a national level conference like IPSCON). Finally the much awaited time has arrived, we landed in Rajkot, Gujarat…!! After attending preconference workshop and Main Conference Venue we fell hard on the ground from cloud nine. In this context we are posting our review on IPSCON-2015 organized at Rajkot, Gujarat to share our experience.
The pre and Main Conference registration process was online and registration fees was to be paid thru NEFT transfer, which was pretty easy and user friendly. Abstract, after submission, its approval and acceptance for oral/poster presentation takes a long time.., so long that you don't have time to book tickets to Gujarat and for accommodation. Meanwhile we got one mail every day from ipscon Gujarat, advising (pushing?) to book hotel rooms in advance. What to do with those rooms if our abstracts were not accepted? (Isn’t it the purpose of our visit…?)
Preconference Workshop
Our workshop was conducted at B.K.Modi College Of Pharmacy, A 30 minutes ride from main Venue. And I don't understand what's the fun in conducting workshop in a different place far away from main conference venue. Most of the people are new to the place/state. We with a lot of difficulty find the main venue, then again searching for another place far away from it is a tiresome process as most of the people booked their stay near to the main conference venue i.e. Saurastra University. About the workshop (ours is on scientific writing), it is very good, interactive, informative and very helpful. Started at the scheduled time, and took a little longer than expected.
Coming to our experiences in Main Conference
The Saurastra University is huge with beautiful buildings scattered around. On entering the university, we found very less banners showing directions where to get our registration done, where to give oral presentation and where poster. It would have been nice if proper banners depicting proper directions, at least to the registration counters. The main venue is a building in a very remote corner of the huge university, where the road is kaccha road, being the only road to the venue, our dress and hair were soiled due to dust by the ongoing vehicles. On reaching the registration counter its shocking to know those people at the counter could not speak English fluently and can't even answer our simple queries. All they can do is just ignore us, rather than answering us. Some people even showed attitude, maybe to get rid of us! Athidi devo bhava!!!
Coming to the food they served at conference. The items were very limited, undercooked and unpalatable. Every day we left the venue with empty stomachs and sore palates. Even the tasteless, bland undercooked food we try to eat was disturbed by the over enthusiastic servers who keep on disturb you every minute with a glass of buttermilk (Chaas) which consisted nothing more of 4/5th of water and 1/5 curd.
Other minor disappointing issues…!!!
- The halls where papers were to be presented are very small, not accommodating even twenty delegates. And also these halls were not labelled as mentioned in the communication mail. These were mentioned as hall d and hall e in the mail but in actual they were labelled as Class 1 and Class 2 in the main venue area..!! Again confusion !!!
- There are three conference halls which are situated far apart making it difficult to walk to attend the halls where the topics in which we are more interested in, were being discussed in another conference hall.
- The most disgusting thing happened at the conference was the organizers informed that they were conducting a quiz among 5 groups, for which our fellow doctors from Rangaraya Medical College (RMC), Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, enrolled enthusiastically, prepared well, spent a fad on tickets and accommodation, reached there to give their best. Their excitement was short lived. Those so called organizers without prior notice shrunk the participating groups to 4, leaving the 5th group baffled (RMC group). Great ORGANISING SKILLS!!!!! Why should these doctors should suffer financially and mentally for the incapability and improper planning of these organizers?
The cultural events organized on day 2 were good and reflected Gujarat culture. Finally the day of giving away the certificates came. We thanked God as this torture is coming to an end. Then came the more shocking blunder of this worst conference. Whenever we try to give away a present, we try our best font to write the names on the wishes card. But here the people who are writing our names on the certificates are very ignorant and careless to check the spellings correctly and the handwriting took us a while to understand that it is English! The certificates are issued at the registration counter by some volunteers, who didn't care to verify whether we have presented a paper or poster, taking out a blank certificate, scribbling our names, asking whether we had presented paper or poster, in prize section or normal, marking those on the certificates and handing them. No matter whether you have presented paper or poster, you can get a certificate of your choice…!!!! Great work by the organizers. We have spent thousands of rupees for this certificate, and this is the care taken on our organizers.
To Conclude
Hoping to learn a lot from this conference, we landed in Gujarat, Expected a lot, gained a little, left in a confused state.
Hoping to learn a lot from this conference, we landed in Gujarat, Expected a lot, gained a little, left in a confused state.
Have you attended IPSCON-2015 ? Share your experience with us via comments section below.
Photos Courtesy: IPSCON-2015 organizing comittee
