Hi. Welcome to ARVO 2014. In a few weeks you will be heading to Orlando to attend the ARVO meeting. If you are attending this conference for the first time, you are not alone. There are several first time attendees from the US and many other nations. This is, indeed, an international conference. There are also attendees selected from developing countries attending this meeting for the first time under an ARVO Travel Grant. To all the successful recipients of that award, I say welcome to ARVO.
I thought I would write to those attending ARVO for the first time to share with you my first ARVO meeting, and to provide you with some suggestions for a successful ARVO experience. My first ARVO meeting could be described as intimidating and overwhelming, nevertheless exciting. I wanted to see and attend every event, every program, and every special keynote presentation. Yes, call it youthful exuberance, but I was naïve and had no clue how to navigate a forum this large, with these many people. I wasted many precious opportunities, and in retrospect, did not accomplish much. Back in those days there were no blogs or twitters; every visitor was left to find his or her own way. In our present technology-enabled society, no first time ARVO attendee will be left without guidance. Therefore I present you with these seven strategies that I have used since then to successfully navigate ARVO:
Strategy #1. Prepare for the ARVO week as you would for a project and start designing your project map starting about two weeks from the meeting. This is essential because if you treat this meeting, like any other scientific event that you just attend, you will gain very little. However, if you treat it like a project you will have deliverables that you can count at the end of the project that will provide you with lifelong satisfaction and benefit.
Strategy #2. Plan NOT to see everything, even in your specialty. This may sound negative or odd, but you must make this plan because you cannot see everything– no one can. This was my first mistake at my first ARVO. I dashed from one presentation to the other, I stood between posters trying to read two at a time, and I cut from one meeting before the end to catch the other. At the end of the week, I was left with too much information that I was not able to neither organize, nor digest.
Strategy #3. Focus. Start targeting the information you need from this meeting. For example, if you are a clinician and need to find a method to best treat your patients, make that your focus for the meeting. Write down search words that will enable you find the topics, presentations and abstracts that will help you. If you are a scientist in an academic institution, build your hypothesis and look for studies in your area of interest that will assist you in writing your proposal. If you are from pharmaceutical industry like me, and are interested in discovery or developing a drug for unmet medical needs, search topics that will provide you with targets of interest and the presentations that will help you develop preclinical and clinical biomarkers for the translational phase of your discovery. Some years ago, a clinician came to my poster presentation wearing a surgical suit. I asked if his practice was close by he responded with “I just flew in from Boston and will return to the airport as soon as I am finished with you”. That is called being focused. This clinician came to ARVO for a single mission of viewing one poster. I am not suggesting this level of focus, but do not be distracted when you come next month. Write the program and poster numbers you will like to visit and go to all of them without sidetracking to other things. There could be many distractions such as a closely related poster next to the one you are visiting with beautiful graphics that could take your attention from the one you have spent time preparing prior to the meeting. Be careful of distractions…
Strategy #4. Take stock of your daily accomplishments. At the end of each day take a few minutes to review what you have learned that day and write an executive summary. At the end of the meeting these sets of summaries will form the bases of your trip report.
Strategy #5. Know the Convention Center. Prior to arrival at the meeting take a close look at the configuration of the Orange County Convention Center map. Locate the center or main entrance. Note the numbering of the halls and locate, if possible, where the posters boards are placed. Make your mini map and trace your daily activities. For international, first-time, visitors I suggest you arrive on Saturday and get yourself acquainted with the convention center before Sunday, when people start arriving. If you are not able to arrive on Saturday, be sure to work closely with your hosts as soon as you find them.
Strategy #6. Networking. One statement that describes your visit to ARVO is “networking for success”. This is the crown of your visit. You must include in your plan a predetermined number of collaborations you want to make. Visit the various committees, ask questions at presentations and posters, find out how you can become a member of any committee of your interest. Find a trusty member and have a dialog or send an e-mail to the president, talk with colleagues of similar academic or clinical interest and plan out of ARVO real or virtual meeting place, start and continue growing your network. Likewise, find mentors that help accelerate your career. By the end of the meeting, be sure to meet your set goals of collaborations.
Strategy #7. Have Fun. ARVO is being held in Florida so the participants can have fun while learning. Do not miss the excitements in Orlando. In fact, memorialize your first ARVO and dream of coming back next year. Visit the parks, go shopping, or take the rides and cruises if you can afford them.
At the end of this meeting, review your accomplishments and let me know if any of these suggested strategies were helpful in your ARVO experience. If you are interested in topics of drug discovery and development, clinical research, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, or just to discuss any research projects you may be working on send me a text, follow my blog, twitter, face book or send me an invite to LinkedIn. Have a great ARVO week.