ISQOLS 2024 Annual Conference Reflections

At the end of June, I went to Sabah, Malaysia for the annual ISQOLS conference. The journey in ISQOLS 2024 means a lot to my academic development. This was my first time to attend ISQOLS conference. It was also my first time to give oral presentation at international conference.

I really appreciate the conference committee offer me such a great opportunity to communicate with global scholars. They have considered every detail relevant to the trip and reminded me via the timely email. Knowing that I’m a PhD student in need of financial support, they generously provided me an education grant on the conference. I want to say thanks to all of you. Particularly, special thanks to the Executive Director, Jill, for reminding me the updated information and getting all the things prepared. Before the conference, I was hesitating how to handle with my trip because I would attend my first conference by myself. The conference arrangements made me feel secured.

Overall, I had a fruitful experience during the conference! The pre-conference workshop I attended provided rich information on psychosocial intervention and life coaching. Regarding the presentation, I was assigned at the Session 12D (Consumer Finance and Well-Being). The presentations at this session were all closely related to my research interests. Particularly, I had frequently read the presenters’ papers even before I notice ISQOLS 2024. The presenters’ ideas had provided me insights to my research. It is my great pleasure to have this opportunity to meet these experts and professors and share my research with them. We had a lot of discussions about our similar research interests. I also learnt a lot regarding my presentation and research from comments and suggestions put forward by presenters and the audience during my session.

Additionally, I really like a special session, Editors’ perspective! I heard that not many conferences had this session. I think this is a representation of the high quality of ISQOLS conference. I communicated with some editors, particularly Prof Xiao from the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning and Prof Yao from the Journal of Consumer Affairs. As a research student in social welfare, financial capability, and quality-of-life, I have closely followed these two journals and also the other ones, Applied Research in Quality of Life (Prof Shek), Social Indicators Research (Prof Botha), and Journal of Happiness Studies (Prof Rossouw). In this session, the editors gave us useful information regarding manuscript preparation and submission. I want to great thanks to these editors and the conference committee for arranging this session.

 

Finally, I think my first time with ISQOLS conference was quite good. After experiencing this trip in Malaysia, I decide to follow ISQOLS continuously. I’m looking forward to the next annual conference and other membership activities. Wishing more future connections with all of you. Thanks!

Zewei Liu