Ep 2 TRANSCRIPT Podcast The Insider’s Guide to Owning National Meetings 051024
Thank you for joining me for my second podcast, which I'm very excited to be talking to you today. Thank you for joining me for my second podcast. Today we're going to be talking about how to approach an academic medical conference and really doing this through the lens of one, learning, educating, having fun, but also how to use some strategies to build your national reputation.
Now we all know that one of the keystones of getting promoted is building a national reputation. So when I started my career, this was absolutely my goal. I wanted to be on the program.
I wanted to be invited as a speaker. I wanted to get published. I wanted everybody to understand what my niche was and to come back to me and ask me to present and, you know, acknowledge that I knew what I was doing.
And so in my mind, getting on the program was really the way to build a national reputation. But as I started working my way into the specialty, obviously I didn't start off on the program. Nobody was knocking down my door asking me to be on a panel or really quite honestly even knew who the heck I was.
And so it became obvious I needed a better strategy. Now I am an introvert and so I didn't interview with a lot of programs in addition. And so those two factors combined really made me feel like I was kind of starting off without the edge a lot of other people had of having at least met folks along the interview trail.
And so I didn't have a large network at the beginning of my career, but I did have a lot of confidence and I had a strategy. And so what I started off doing was looking to see who seemed to know what was going on, looking to see what was on the program committee, looking at my own mentors and faculty and previous advisors and seeing who they seemed to know. And I really started off with the intent of just getting to know some people.
Now part of this is the introvert thing. It is a nightmare to walk into a room full of people that I don't know. I feel super uncomfortable.
I don't feel like there's any way for me to approach this. It's like the most terrible feeling in the world, like having to go to a cocktail party. So what I wanted to do was start off by just having a couple of conversations one-on-one with people where I just got an opportunity to meet a face and to meet a person that maybe I could say hi to in the next meeting.
And so to sort of start that cascade. But also, if I'm going to have to meet some brand new people, what's the harm of meeting the people who are in charge or those who actually are sitting on the program committee? And the reason I talk specifically about those folks is because they actually are looking for folks who want to give them ideas. So one of the things, if you've ever sat on a program committee, is that they ask you to come up with topics.
They ask you to think about speakers. They want to sort of distribute them among programs. They want them to be male and female and black and white and young and old.
And so there's a real value to making yourself known for what you're interested in doing and letting people know you want to be on the program. And so I started by asking my mentors and my sponsors to introduce me to some of those folks or introducing myself to maybe one of them, usually the most junior person on that committee, but somebody on the committee. And as time went along, more often it was with the chair of the committee.
And in fact, as time moved even further, I was more willing to say, hey, I would love to have an opportunity to speak, but we'll get to that. So I really recommend networking and raising your hand. So the other thing is, every once in a while, committees need help for people who aren't even on the committee.
And so it might be that you say, hey, if you ever need help in the future or if you're looking for somebody to sit on the committee, I'd be happy to help people looking for volunteers. Now, the other thing I think is really useful if you're not on the program is to speak up at the question and answer session. So you can provide a thoughtful insight or ask a question.
And it really helps make a name for yourself. I know people who have not been on the program at all, but I understand their thought process, their interests, just based on how they ask questions. Now, I also want to be clear.
You don't want to be the person that's making other people uncomfortable on the podium. You're not trying to get one over on somebody or go back and make somebody else feel like they don't know what they're doing. But there are ways that you can thoughtfully ask a question.
And I've even in the past given people sort of advice or pointers, not necessarily in the middle of the room, but afterwards as they got off the podium to give them, hey, this would be useful in the paper. This is an obvious question that I had when I thought about what's going on. If we get back to setting up your national reputation, if you are an expert in an area, this is a perfect opportunity to talk about how this supports the literature or it's different than literature or why do they think from methodologic standpoint something happened or why wasn't their hypothesis borne out? What do you think it might be? And give some thoughts of your own.
It's also a way to learn and teach and connect with some like-minded peers. And it may be that you make a relationship with the person on the podium or the senior author of whatever that article is. It also might be an opportunity to sort of find like-minded other people who get up and are talking about the same articles.
And if you're not comfortable going up to the podium, this is a perfect thing to work on with a mentor or a coach. In addition, in the meantime, you can always touch base with authors individually like I mentioned, or send an email or a text as feedback. I also strongly recommend that you attend the social events when you go to meetings.
Now, again, as an introvert, is this my favorite spot? I just had a cocktail party. It was my idea of one of Dante's circles of hell. It is.
But I also recognize the opportunity to really meet the people in charge. So the people who go to the social events are people who have a lot of friends, people who are really trying to support the organization, and absolutely the leadership. So this is your opportunity to meet the head of the program committee, to talk about people on the program, to talk to the people on the nominating committee who might be able to put you on the program or on a committee in the future.
And I don't always find it easy if I don't know a lot of people in the room, but like I said, I start by talking to one person and just focus on getting to know them a little bit. Be curious, ask questions, see what their interests are. You never know if that first conversation is going to go somewhere, they're going to turn into a friend, or it's just somebody you can wave hi to at the meeting.
But it's a great opportunity for informal learning, and I have definitely been known to exchange surgical technique conversations over cocktail napkins and drinks. Now the biggest way that you can really get yourself known at a national meeting is to get on the program. Now speaking is the ultimate way to do that, and if you are able to put together some research and get your abstracts accepted, this is ideal.
If not, this is a great place to work with a mentor or a coach so that you have this in mind for the next meeting, and we'll be talking about that in a couple podcasts. This, however, is not what everybody's able to do, and so there's other ways to get on the program. One great way as a young faculty member is to serve as a moderator, and this is another thing that you can offer your services to for the program committee or have a sponsor or a mentor of yours mention your name to the committee and get you on the program.
Now if you are on the program and you're a comfortable and polished speaker, this is fantastic. Show off. Show everybody you're good at this.
Be comfortable. Make eye contact. Look around the room, but if you're not as comfortable, make sure that you prepare and practice your presentation ahead of time, and maybe do it in front of colleagues or family members.
My kids are absolutely happy to tell me when I'm not doing a good job. It's also really nice when you get on the program to be able to open yourself up to questions, and sometimes I'll even ask people to give me comments if they think something different from what I've just presented, or they have thoughts on why something I did didn't work, because I've presented a lot of studies that didn't work. And acknowledge when you don't know an answer, so people might give you a great question that you have no idea what the response is.
If you have another colleague in the room who can jump in, that's great, but sometimes you don't know, and it's something to say thank you so much for pointing that out. We'll have to look into it, or they've noticed a limitation in your study which maybe you didn't include in your paper, and so it's a great opportunity to improve what you did for that paper or do something better in the future. And absolutely hearing other people's great questions often gives me ideas for future studies.
Now there's other ways to approach a medical conference that can be really valuable, and quite honestly I'm not as great at some of these. The first is to engage on social media, and I've absolutely taken note of people who are posting about the meeting, they're showing pictures of the speakers, they may be showing a quick video, maybe giving a commentary. It's also just really nice for them to be able to advertise what you're doing.
You can also put in an abstract or a panel by the deadline and put those deadlines on your calendar. So almost at every meeting they'll be advertising the abstract deadlines for the next meeting. I recommend you write these down, and in fact I recommend you keep a calendar of abstract and panel deadlines for those meetings that you attend or you would like to attend in the future.
And I keep a short list of those, I have abstract deadlines, I have meeting deadlines, and I have the meeting dates so that I can make sure that I'm planning towards those. So if I have a project that I think is going to take six months time, it may be that I say great what meetings abstracts are due in six months, oh well July might be easier than August, I'll figure out which one makes sense, and it gives me a goal to work towards, especially as I work with other people. I also recommend you submit abstracts or poster presentations.
This is how you get on the program if you're not a moderator or a panel presenter. And then do serve on committees or task forces. Sometimes these are solicited during business meetings, and I didn't mention it here, but that's absolutely a great way to get on the know, is to be in the business meeting, see what's coming up, and quite honestly the people in the business meeting people know are more serious, especially because they're oftentimes at ungodly early hours on a weekend day, but they are a way for you to make sure that you're seen, for you to ask questions, for you to talk to the folks who are the movers and shakers.
Now the other thing to remember is enjoy yourself at the meeting, catch up with your friends, try and learn something, and maybe, maybe treat yourself to a drink. You absolutely deserve it, whether that's getting enough sleep, or drinking enough water, or going for a walk, or working out with friends. Thank you so much for joining me today, and I look forward to talking to you next week about how to focus your niche.
