Conference participation

For the prospective participant, a scientific conference starts with a First announcement and Call for Papers (CFP). The CFP is a text, typically circulated via electronic mailing lists, and stored on the conference's website, that announces the general objectives of the planned conferences and lists basic information such as time, place, organizers and scientific committee. Its most important function is to invite scientists world-wide to submit papers for possible presentation at the conference. Therefore, it lists general requirements for submissions such as length (from a half page abstract to a 20 page full paper), address and deadline for submission.

Typical Conference Organization
Selection of papers
If you are interested to participate in the conference, you will submit a paper/abstract to the organizers. They will pass it on the members of the scientific/progam committee for refereeing. On the basis of the referee report and the number of available slots in the program, the conference chair will decide whether your paper can be accepted or not. You should get an acceptance/rejection message before a fixed deadline, typically not later than a month or two after the submission deadline and 3-4 months before the start of the conference. With your letter of acceptance, you can ask for funding for travel, accommodation, and conference registration, all of which can be pretty expensive
Sometimes papers can be accepted either for oral presentation, or as posters. In the latter case, you are expected to turn the paper into a large format text with illustrations, good for visual inspection, that will be hung on walls or panels in the conference center. At a designated time, you will be expected to stand near your poster in order to be able to answer eventual questions about it. Posters are typically used to give less good contributions still the chance to be presented, without taking time in the conference schedule.
If your paper/poster is accepted, you may be asked to prepare a final document version of it, before or after the conference, for publication in the conference proceedings. Proceedings are typically published as stand-alone volumes, though sometimes they are turned into special issues of journals, or published only electronically on the web. Final versions are typically more polished, extended and corrected compared to initial submissions, and may need to fulfill detailed formatting requirements.