Today I'm going to talk to you about scoring a spot on the academic stage or how to get on the program at academic meetings. One of the most important ways to build a national reputation and let everybody know where they should be including you in their talks and their presentations is to establish yourself as an authority and secure a spot at a major conference or meeting within your field. If you're already invited, congratulations! This is a clear indicator that you have been known for your area of expertise.
But if you're not yet on the program, do not be discouraged. I'm going to talk today about some of the best ways and our tricks on how to get into these valuable speaking opportunities. Now one of the most important is making sure everybody understands your niche and I have a podcast on episode three that talks about how to make sure that your niche is clear to everybody else.
And this is really the easiest way for people to understand when they should be inviting you or thinking about you as a speaker, either as a moderator or an innovative invited speaker or a keynote speaker. And if you want to know more about this, we do have a checklist on focusing your area of expertise. So please send us a DM or an email saying niche if you're interested in that.
Now with that in mind, you also need to do some other things. So staying organized is really important. At almost every national meeting, they're going to be talking about abstract and panel deadlines for the next meeting.
So I recommend creating a calendar of all of the different conferences you might be interested in and then look at where they're located, when they occur, when their deadlines are, and they may be different for abstracts than for panels. And then put those on your calendar, block them off in advance, make sure that you've got projects that you're working towards. And quite honestly, six to 12 months ahead of time, you can be saying, hey, this is a three-month panel, this is a three-month deadline.
This may be good for whatever's coming up in four months to be submitted, or this one's going to take me 12 months, but gosh, I might be able to push for nine months because I want to present at such and such a meeting. And so this really helps you keep track of those things. And I have routinely created these as Excel spreadsheets, but it can be really useful to put these on your calendar ahead of time.
They could probably be repeated on an almost annual basis, but this is the reason I create a deadline and then do this at the beginning of every year is just chart this out. Now, the other important thing is to connect with the program committee. And I have another podcast where we've talked about introducing ourselves to folks.
But really, if you're going to go to a meeting and you have to introduce yourself to someone, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to introduce yourself to the people on the program committee and the head of the program committee, who may in fact be looking for people who are interested in talking about a topic, who may know the experts in the field. It may also be useful if you want to volunteer as a moderator for a topic. And so think about finding these folks and offering your services.
And then my next point is don't be shy. It is also reasonable to ask to be on the program. If you are interested, people will consider this, especially if you can offer a topic that you know is interesting, that people are interested in, and in which you have established some notoriety or expertise and have some publications.
It is also useful to get an idea of what a good and a bad abstract looks like. And so if you're on the program committee, it may be useful to see what people are submitting and what is being well responded to. Getting on the committee is also showing a commitment to the organization.
It makes you much more likely to be on the program. I've been on many program committees where the people who are on the committee are the people we look to to be moderators or speakers because of the service they're providing. And in the real time, it helps you look at what are good and abstracts, what are good proposals, where are the gaps, where are you scrambling to find people to talk about a topic.
And this may or may not be an area you're interested in, but it may be an area where you can sponsor others who are interested in somewhere that there's a gap. Now I also strongly recommend submitting panels or courses depending on the type of meeting. This extremely increases your chance.
It's like, you know, if you're not going to play the lottery, you're not going to win the lottery. Well, if you're not going to submit a panel or a course, it's much less likely you'll be on the podium. And this is in addition to abstracts.
I'm not saying do this instead. I think doing both is great, but they have different purposes. So abstracts often are to talk about your area of influence, to look at the research you're doing, to show your academic interest.
Panels or courses can also serve in this way, but assume a level of expertise if you're doing a course. So sometimes they require you to have been out of practice for a certain number of years. Although oftentimes you can do this in combination with a more senior person if you don't feel like you have as much notoriety or the ability to be picked as cleanly for the program.
And then panels I think are a fantastic way for young faculty to get on the program. And my recommendation is that you look for a topic where you have a lot of questions. You personally think there are a lot of things you would like to know.
And ask the senior folks who you want to hear from. Ask them to be on the panel. Let them know what the question is, or ask their advice on what you think the most interesting questions or gaps might be.
Recommend that you create those slides and those panels. Make it easy for them to say yes. Let them know you're not going to require them to create a presentation.
But in fact you plan to present a couple informational slides in an ideal world. These might include a study that you've created. It might include a study that they've created.
And then you move forward and say these are the cases or can you provide a case that might illustrate a point. And that you will introduce them. You will ask them questions.
You will listen to them and give them some opportunity for conversation between panelists. But make it really easy for your roster of esteemed panelists to say yes to being on your panel. And then leverage your network.
So when you build your panel, you really want to make sure that you've talked to some senior folks. And if you don't know them, feel free to talk to your sponsors or your mentors and see if they'll reach out to some of these important folks. This is also an opportunity for you to speak to these people at the meeting, at the coffee break, at the social event, in order to ask if they might be interested in talking about a panel or if they may already be involved and could include you in the future.
And as you bring up good questions, it may be an opportunity to talk about pooling data between multiple institutions or multiple resources so that you can really have a good conversation about how to do this. So I recommend you be prospective, proactive, excuse me, about these speaking opportunities and allow you to gain invaluable visibility and reinforce your reputation as a go-to expert within your specialized area.
If you're interested in getting on the program at a national meeting, we do have a checklist for getting on the program at a national meeting.
And so please feel free to DM us or email us at [email protected] with the keyword MEETING.
I thank you very much for getting this far along listening to our podcast.
If you're interested in learning more about focusing on how to get on the program, please go to the blog at medicalmentorcoaching.com\blog or reach out to us at Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn to get a copy of the checklist.
Thank you for listening and I look forward to talking to you next week.
