Importance of Small Meetings: Women in Ophthalmology Summer Symposium-Cure for Conference Burn Out
Anyone who considers professional development an important part of work has attended large multi-track meetings of hundreds if not thousands of colleagues in a specific field of work. The business and culture of large conferences is a multi-million-dollar industry which we depend upon to introduce our junior colleagues, present our academic and scholarly work, and hold advisory board meetings.
Conference Burnout
Problem with these meetings is conference-burn out, which usually occurs around the 3rd or 4th day. In her blog on conference burnout, Arianna O’Dell writing for Inc suggests the following 4 steps:
- Keep tunnel focus on your goal and learn to say no
- Limit the libations
- Schedule downtime to recharge
- Plan travel accordingly.
I don’t always have the luxury of doing these things—except for limiting my libations. So, I want to add a fifth and sixth suggestion.
Suggestion number 5: Choose smaller conferences. For deep learning and less burn out, I prefer the smaller conferences and symposia. These conference permit you to interact more with your neighbors and the speakers.
Suggestion number 6: Understand the conference culture before you go. Sometimes conference culture contributes to burn out. We have all experienced our fair share of anxiety when we show up in a black suit and pumps to a beach-casual conference. You may think you are “rocking it” in your Ferragamo pumps but what you are really doing is ratcheting up anxiety and spoiling the vibe for others.
WIO Summer Symposium-Antidote for Conference Burnout
In late summer, I look forward to the Women in Ophthalmology (WIO) summer symposium which bounces back and forth on successive years between the west and east coasts. The WIO is a conference dedicated to gaining knowledge and visibility, affecting change, and empowering the aspirations of women and their allies in ophthalmology.
While there are plenty of early morning continuing medical education programs, the mid-morning talks tend to take on executive soft skills such as the “art of communicating” and “interacting with the press”; while the afternoon talks include wet labs. In the interim there are over 140 scientific and medical poster presentations and a very health vendor show. The evenings are for recharging—my favorite is the spa-networking retreat. The dress code for this conference is smart-casual. Taken altogether, WIO summer Symposium is the modern cure for conference burnout.
Amelia Island, Florida
The 2019 meeting was held at the resort in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. The next meeting will be in Florida on Amelia Island at the Ritz Carlton hotel.