Academic Medicine Open Forum

Learn Serve Lead 2022: The AAMC Annual Meeting is happening – in person – next month. Many other professional conferences seem to be returning to in-person format too. We fear our collective networking skills might be… rusty. 

What is your best piece of advice for networking at conferences and events? Please share your advice by responding to this discussion.

(P.S. - Are you attending Learn Serve Lead? We'd love to see you while we are all there! Stop by the Pavilion in the Exhibit Hall to say hello!)

Learn Serve Lead 2022: The AAMC Annual Meeting is happening – in person – next month. Many other professional conferences seem to be returning to in-person format too. We fear our collective networking skills might be… rusty. 

What is your best piece of advice for networking at conferences and events? Please share your advice by responding to this discussion.

(P.S. - Are you attending Learn Serve Lead? We'd love to see you while we are all there! Stop by the Pavilion in the Exhibit Hall to say hello!)

I'm not going to LSL, but I did just get back from another conference (Association of Educational Communications and Technology or AECT). I agree with Stephanie's comments about asking people for their name again - conferences can be overwhelming, especially when there are a lot of people attending. Plus, there is growing interest in researching social anxiety as we (hopefully) emerge out of the pandemic. Here is one example:

Struggling with Social Anxiety as We Prepare for Re-entry Post-COVID? Anxiety Expert Shares How to Cope
https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-blog/2022/april/struggling-with-social-anxiety-as-we-prepare-for-reentry-post-covid-anxiety

There will likely be people wearing masks at the conference and that's perfectly fine. Allow people the space to feel as comfortable as they need to be, especially in large group settings. I can attest from my own recent experience that I felt very fatigued every day and I think a big part of it is I have not had many situations during the past 2.5 years where I was around so many people. I don't think there was fear of COVID, I think it was just cognitive overload in general. 

Have a wonderful conference and if you need to go back to the hotel in the middle of the day to take a nap, do it! 

Max

Learn Serve Lead 2022: The AAMC Annual Meeting is happening – in person – next month. Many other professional conferences seem to be returning to in-person format too. We fear our collective networking skills might be… rusty. 

What is your best piece of advice for networking at conferences and events? Please share your advice by responding to this discussion.

(P.S. - Are you attending Learn Serve Lead? We'd love to see you while we are all there! Stop by the Pavilion in the Exhibit Hall to say hello!)

I'm not going to LSL, but I did just get back from another conference (Association of Educational Communications and Technology or AECT). I agree with Stephanie's comments about asking people for their name again - conferences can be overwhelming, especially when there are a lot of people attending. Plus, there is growing interest in researching social anxiety as we (hopefully) emerge out of the pandemic. Here is one example:

Struggling with Social Anxiety as We Prepare for Re-entry Post-COVID? Anxiety Expert Shares How to Cope
https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-blog/2022/april/struggling-with-social-anxiety-as-we-prepare-for-reentry-post-covid-anxiety

There will likely be people wearing masks at the conference and that's perfectly fine. Allow people the space to feel as comfortable as they need to be, especially in large group settings. I can attest from my own recent experience that I felt very fatigued every day and I think a big part of it is I have not had many situations during the past 2.5 years where I was around so many people. I don't think there was fear of COVID, I think it was just cognitive overload in general. 

Have a wonderful conference and if you need to go back to the hotel in the middle of the day to take a nap, do it! 

Max

Learn Serve Lead 2022: The AAMC Annual Meeting is happening – in person – next month. Many other professional conferences seem to be returning to in-person format too. We fear our collective networking skills might be… rusty. 

What is your best piece of advice for networking at conferences and events? Please share your advice by responding to this discussion.

(P.S. - Are you attending Learn Serve Lead? We'd love to see you while we are all there! Stop by the Pavilion in the Exhibit Hall to say hello!)

I'm not going to LSL, but I did just get back from another conference (Association of Educational Communications and Technology or AECT). I agree with Stephanie's comments about asking people for their name again - conferences can be overwhelming, especially when there are a lot of people attending. Plus, there is growing interest in researching social anxiety as we (hopefully) emerge out of the pandemic. Here is one example:

Struggling with Social Anxiety as We Prepare for Re-entry Post-COVID? Anxiety Expert Shares How to Cope
https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-blog/2022/april/struggling-with-social-anxiety-as-we-prepare-for-reentry-post-covid-anxiety

There will likely be people wearing masks at the conference and that's perfectly fine. Allow people the space to feel as comfortable as they need to be, especially in large group settings. I can attest from my own recent experience that I felt very fatigued every day and I think a big part of it is I have not had many situations during the past 2.5 years where I was around so many people. I don't think there was fear of COVID, I think it was just cognitive overload in general. 

Have a wonderful conference and if you need to go back to the hotel in the middle of the day to take a nap, do it! 

Max

Learn Serve Lead 2022: The AAMC Annual Meeting is happening – in person – next month. Many other professional conferences seem to be returning to in-person format too. We fear our collective networking skills might be… rusty. 

What is your best piece of advice for networking at conferences and events? Please share your advice by responding to this discussion.

(P.S. - Are you attending Learn Serve Lead? We'd love to see you while we are all there! Stop by the Pavilion in the Exhibit Hall to say hello!)

Learn Serve Lead 2022: The AAMC Annual Meeting is happening – in person – next month. Many other professional conferences seem to be returning to in-person format too. We fear our collective networking skills might be… rusty. 

What is your best piece of advice for networking at conferences and events? Please share your advice by responding to this discussion.

(P.S. - Are you attending Learn Serve Lead? We'd love to see you while we are all there! Stop by the Pavilion in the Exhibit Hall to say hello!)

Learn Serve Lead 2022: The AAMC Annual Meeting is happening – in person – next month. Many other professional conferences seem to be returning to in-person format too. We fear our collective networking skills might be… rusty. 

What is your best piece of advice for networking at conferences and events? Please share your advice by responding to this discussion.

(P.S. - Are you attending Learn Serve Lead? We'd love to see you while we are all there! Stop by the Pavilion in the Exhibit Hall to say hello!)