Pearls on Navigating the Annual Meeting

By Don Sauberan, MD

Now that you have had success navigating your residency, the challenge is to successfully navigate the AAO Annual Meeting. I remember my first meeting when I was a second-year resident. I was amazed that they can fill a whole convention center with nothing but ophthalmology! It truly was eye-opening. There are several things that you can do to make your meeting more enjoyable.

1. Plan ahead: I am assuming that you already have lodging and transportation worked out. Transportation is especially important if you are presenting at the meeting. There are shuttles between most of the hotels and the convention center.

(http://www.aao.org/meetings/annual_meeting/travel/upload/2008-Shuttle-Schedule_10-07-08.pdf). Learn where your hotel pick-up stop is. The shuttles start running early, but they still are not available for all of the early-morning or late-afternoon sessions. I also strongly recommend creating an itinerary prior to arriving in Atlanta. The Academy does a good job with both their website and the written program to allow you to plan which events you are going to attend. This becomes necessary as there may be 2 things that you want to attend that are at similar times.

2. Free is good: There are lots of free sessions available to Academy attendees. From video presentations to Original Paper Sessions, there are a lot of options available to those with limited resources.

3. Find your friends: I always enjoyed meeting up with my current residents, but also those residents who may be friends from college, medical school, or other programs. Your residency program will probably have a dinner for current members and alumni, so make sure that you find out when that is.

4. View the posters: The poster sessions are always good to look at. Perhaps you even have a poster in the meeting. There are lots of cutting-edge ideas presented in these posters, which may someday become standard of care.

5. Visit the booths: You will be inundated with rotating displays, glossy literature, and lots and lots of reps. However, there is good information to be found at the vendor booths. It is a good idea to have in mind specific topics or goals that you want to cover. Perhaps you are looking into a different chopper. Here you can hold it, manipulate it, and see how it feels.

6. Give back: I enjoyed picking up information of the different charitable eye organizations that are available. There are numerous groups attempting to help the world with their eye problems. If nothing else, this can stimulate a desire to give back when you are out of residency and in practice. I always found the plain set-ups a distinct contrast to the glitzy pharmaceutical displays. And really, what is more important?

7. Find a book: I enjoyed going to the book vendor displays and looking at the material that was available. I usually like to look at a book before purchase, so the meeting was a great way to peruse the latest review book and see if it was something that I wanted. Plus, there are often discounts available if you buy at the Annual Meeting.

8. Expand your horizons: It is easy to go to the Academy and get focused on your future specialty. For example, if you are planning to do a retina fellowship, you can be dazzled by all of the latest Lucentis news and 25 gauge pars plana vitrectomy information. However, I think this is a good time to look and see what is going on in other specialties (other than your own). Last year, in New Orleans, I (as a pediatric ophthalmology fellow), made it a point to visit the PASCAL laser booth, because I had seen the ads in the throw-aways, and wanted to see what it was about. They allowed you to try the machine, and while I will never use one in my practice, I enjoyed the experience to learn about other specialties and techniques.

The 2008 Annual Meeting is sure to be spectacular. With a little preparation, you can make the meeting into an extremely worthwhile trip, both personally and professionally.