I am thinking about what should I bring to the conference.
Normally, will people dress up (like full suit) for the dinner?
p.s. I am in CS domain.
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Sign up to join this communityI am thinking about what should I bring to the conference.
Normally, will people dress up (like full suit) for the dinner?
p.s. I am in CS domain.
No. You do not need to wear a suit for presenting at a conference. Most of the times, CS conferences have the typical t-shirt (or shirt), jeans combination of computer / tech guys.
For the dinner, you can dress a little more formally (if you want) but still a suit is not required. In fact, if you are young (<30) , wearing a suit and a tie would probably seem a little weird.
Bottom line: Wear what you usually wear when you go to work for the presentation and a little more formal (nicer) wear for dinner.
If it's not the first iteration of the conference, chances are that you could see past editions of the conference, including some pictures of the dinner, so you can just do what you see.
Basically, what @Alexandros said. Just wanted to add a specific example: a (CS, European) conference I attended last summer got this fancy place for the gala dinner, and they asked the attendees if they could dress in formal wear.
This wasn't quite well received: most people didn't pack a suit (a lot of them traveled with only hand luggage). The collective decisions was to either do the best they could (in the situation) or not really care.
Finally, the dinner was a mixture of some suits and dresses (but mostly on older people, I would guess 30+ or even 40+), most people in pants and shirt combination or half-serious summer dresses (instead of standard T-shirt) plus an odd few wearing crazy print T-shirts and jeans. I've seen a few people come in with a tie, look around and then discreetly take it off and tuck it in their pockets :)
So bottom line is: overall, people at the gala dinner will be slightly less casually dressed than your typical day in the office (in European labs, at least) or conference presentations. Also, it's not uncommon to end up in a bar after the gala, and you probably don't want to overdress and look out-of-place if that happens.
I can only tell you my experience at conferences - biomedical in the U.S. - the bio conferences tend to be pretty dressy with most conference goes in sports coats (for guys) and formal pant suits for women.
I would bring a nice shirt/slacks and sports coat, at least you can quickly mold to the situation. I didn't know the conference was that dressy and felt out of place in a polo shirt and slacks (this was again my experience). But every industry is different, it depends on where the conference is (hawaii or chicago), how many people are there, who you want to impress, etc.). Nobody will remember if you overdressed but everyone will remember if you were that guy who showed up to a gala in shorts/t-shirt.