Covid-19 has significantly impacted professional education. While 2020 saw most medical conferences in the U.S. screech to a halt and transition into online virtual events, medical conferences organizers and the physicians and industry partners they serve are eager to get back to in-person events, and with some urgency.
VEIN Magazine sat down with the course directors of the VEITHsymposium, the largest and the most up-to-date vascular meeting in the world, to learn about their determination to bring vascular specialists together again live and in-person in 2021.
Some accommodations will need to be made to keep everyone safe and to ensure the show does go on. In a first for the 48-year-old medical conference mainstay, the 2021 meeting will be held outside of New York City and held in Orlando (they'll be back in New York once things go back to normal there). While the meeting organizers considered the advantages of virtual meetings, ultimately, they felt there are just some things you can't do as well online.
Here VEITHsymposium co-chair, Dr. Enrico Ascher tells us eight reasons VEITHsymposium 2021 will be in person.
Protected Time
When you are at a live meeting, you dedicate that time to learning. Unlike when you're engaged in online learning or a Webinar and you are more inclined to experience interruptions.
Connecting with Others
When you attend a conference in person, you have the opportunity to connect with friends and colleagues on a personal basis also. It's very hard to talk to others through a webinar. It is not as personal, and being in a meeting, you have the opportunity to talk to whoever you want including people you haven't seen for a long time.
Holding Devices
Live meetings offer the opportunity to learn about and touch medical devices. It's important to touch the new devices, particularly in the venous area, and an amazing number of new devices come up every year.
Time Away
Time away from the office and home is often a great opportunity to plan and strategize your professional life. At a conference, you have a few days away where you're interacting with your colleagues, seeing what's new and what's coming up, what has worked and what did not work, and being away gives you some time to digest all this and to strategize how you're going to change your service when you go back home. You're not just there for fun and learning. You're actually planning your life and your colleagues and your service.
Recruitment
Some vascular practices are increasing dramatically, and VEITHsymposium provides an opportunity to recruit young vascular surgeons. It's not so easy to recruit good people, but when you see them presenting their papers and the way they're interacting with other colleagues, you get a pretty good feel for the person. In addition, you have a chance to interview them right there during the meeting.
Submit an Abstract
Attendees of the VEITHsymposium have the opportunity to submit their work and to present it in the Associate Faculty Forum. This gives attendees the ability to present their papers in front of moderators that are known all over the world. They get to hear some constructive criticisms about their work and interact with an audience. Abstracts presented will be published in a supplement for the VEITHsymposium and the Journal of Vascular Surgery, which is the number one journal for vascular diseases in the world.
(Submit your abstracts no later than October 29, 2021. Visit here for more information.)
Meeting Movers and Shakers
VEITHsymposium is one of the best places to meet the movers and shakers in vascular surgery personally. You can go up to professor Veith and talk to him. Now you're talking to a legend. You can talk to professor Kabnick or professor Almeida. Those are the leaders in venous diseases. You can talk on a personal basis, exchange some ideas, ask questions about a difficult case that you had. That kind of interaction is priceless.
Moving Up the Academic Ladder
If you are in a full-time academic line, you want to be a participant in the VEITHsymposium. You want to show your work to the people there. You may get even a better job. With the recognition you receive at the meeting, it becomes easier for you to move up the academic ladder to show your work. As an added bonus those presentations are not going to only be viewed by those in the live audience, but then they are available in an online library that stays there forever.
To Attend VEITHsymposium 2021
VEITHsymposium 2021 is being held November 16 - 20 in Orlando, Florida. The venous program will run from November 17 - 19. Register at https://www.veithsymposium.org
Submit your abstracts no later than October 29, 2021. Visit here for more information.
