I look forward to getting first-hand insights and behind-the-scene perspectives from XXX’s professors who are thought leaders and experts in their fields.
Should I replace to getting with to get ?
I checked on other forums regarding to + -ING vs infinitive form, but I didn't find a satisfactory answer.
The to getting doesn't seem correct while speaking.
Consider the verbs like afraid of, speak about, etc. The -ing form is required after such verbs with prepositions. Look forward to is one of those verbs where to is the preposition, not a part of infinitive. For instance,
We spoke about going on a trip at the weekend. I'm afraid of staying alone at home. I'm looking forward to getting e-mail from my penpal.
Now consider these examples with infinitive.
I decided to pursue my education abroad. Tom wanted to help me.
We cannot say that to in these sentences is preposition used after the verbs, instead it's part of the infinitives.
No, you need the -ing, but it does sound a little awkward to me. I would simply replace getting with learning.
Getting is more correct here, but this kind of construction should be accompanied by a time (specific, like 8 am, or general, like soon or at the party). The tense is future progressive/continuous tense, which is generally used to indicate that we will be in the middle of an action at a specified time, or making a guess about the future. Some similar constructions:
It's important to note that the verb here is not infinitive: it's not to getting or to eating, but "I [look forward to] getting".
Future progressive is more commonly used with the word will, like "I will be swimming all afternoon", which makes it more clear what part of the sentence the to is part of. If you replaced the phrase "look forward to" with "will be" in your sentence, you get the following:
I will be getting first-hand insights and behind-the-scene perspectives from XXX’s professors who are thought leaders and experts in their fields.
I don't know if it's grammatical without the time, though, so perhaps the following would be better:
I look forward to getting first-hand insights and behind-the-scene perspectives from XXX’s professors who are thought leaders and experts in their fields tomorrow.
Or at the conference, soon, etc.
In standard NZ English,,, and everywhere else that I can remember where the user is a native English speaker, "look/ing/ed forward to,," Always has the --ing ending on a verb.
eg She looks forward to havING Marmite on her toast.
I looked forward to gettING mail from China.
The tense of the action has no effect on the format.
