Recruiting: Attending Professionals' Annual Meetings

Attending professional society meetings for the various specialties that your condition affects can be important for a number of reasons. You will learn more about the condition, about the specialties that serve the condition, and gain credibility with the specialists. Search for the specialties professional organization on the Internet, contact the exhibits coordinator, and ask if you can exhibit at the meeting. Alternatively, ask one of your advisors to give you an orientation to their annual meeting and ask his or her advice about exhibiting. Registering exhibiting and attending professional society meetings can be expensive with lodging, transportation and registration costs but are worth the long range investment.

In addition to major, international and national annual meetings, consider exhibiting at or attending periodic regional meetings as well, and research which meeting might be more productive. For example, in dermatology, different meetings during the year focus in different ways. The American Academy of Dermatology Annual meeting, usually in February, is a large meeting with many clinicians attending. They attend to learn, network, and visit vendors - the vendors number in the thousands. The Summer Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology in July is much smaller and less formal, with fewer exhibitors. And still another way to meet dermatologists is the Society of Investigative Dermatology meeting, usually in May, where many clinician-researchers and researchers gather to engage in serious discussion about research on dermatologic conditions and concepts.

Each of these meetings require a different response from your organization - for a large annual meeting you may prepare a table-top display stocked with some sample patient-information - brochures and newsletters. You will probably want to rent a 'card reader' –a mini computer that you rent to use for the duration of the meeting. Typically at these meetings, the attendees will have been given a card with a magnetic stripe that encodes their name and contact information. You can insert the card into your card reader. It stores the information on a hard drive in the reader. You can even annotate the entry. You might want to annotate entries with the number of patients with your condition that this clinician has or the clinician's special interest. You might also note requests - this clinician would like to receive all the back newsletters or multiple copies of your printed materials.

You will need to order the card reader well before the meeting. The cost is usually about $150. You can order a portable or electric reader. The portable is battery operated and when you return it, the card-reader service gives you a floppy disk of the scanned data. The electric model is larger, requires that you rent an electrical outlet for your booth, and provides only a printout unless you pay an additional amount for a disk file.

If the meeting does not offer readers for meeting-issued cards, consider bringing a business-card reader. These small, handheld devices scan the information on a business card, and usually store them in a searchable format. Alternatively provide a sign—up pad and collect business cards.

In the case of a research meeting such as the Society of Investigative Dermatology meeting, you would encourage members of your research advisory board or staff to network with researchers. Learning which audience is at what event for what purpose helps you tailor your approach (and budget your funds) to reach the right audience in the best way.

Preparation: You will need to register months in advance to attend a medical or research meeting. Most associations will ask you to pay to exhibit. Ask them if they have any special arrangements with lay advocacy groups or nonprofit organizations. Some associations offer free or low cost exhibit space. If you cannot get a discount on space (and straight costs can be as high as $1500 to $3000 for a simple 10 x 10 space) contact other lay advocacy groups with your clinical specialty interest and ask them if there are any arrangements between the professional association and lay groups, or it they are interested in working together to develop a partnership with the professional associations.

Sometimes the professional association has an arrangement with umbrella organizations. For example, members of the Coalition of Skin Diseases exhibit free at the American Academy of Dermatology. Other associations, such as the American Academy of Ophthalmology, may require a description of what you offer. They then choose which organizations are allowed to exhibit. Once you do secure space, you will receive a detailed description of it. In most cases it will be a tabletop space, a poster space, or a small booth. You will be given information about whether you need to rent a table, a table shirt, a chair, a waste basket, carpeting and so on. Most groups find they need two chairs and the requisite table skirt and carpet, but skip the wastebasket and any other frills. . Who ever would have thought of a wastebasket as a frill! Some lay advocacy groups obtain small items like card tables and wastebaskets from members local to the conference so that the booth has the items that need but they do not incur costs. But some conference organizers do not allow any furnishings except the ones available for rent through the conference organizers. In addition, most conference centers do not allow exhibitors to bring anything in to the hall other than what can be hand carried in one trip.

Supplies: Go to the meeting with an exhibit that fits your space. This can be as simple as a science fair poster board with some information about your group or as elaborate as a tabletop or floor-model display exhibit. Make sure your message is clear on the exhibit board: show your mission, goals, activities and anything you offer clinicians in large, easy-to-read writing. Make sure your materials look as professional as possible,

You may also wish to have a vinyl banner made with your organization's name, logo, and perhaps website address. Vinyl banners are durable, easy to store and carry, and can brand a generic exhibit space instantly. You may even be able to get one designed or made for your group for free or in exchange for an acknowledgement of designer or printer's contribution. You can also consider a table skirt - again a simple way to display your brand.

On the table, in front of the exhibit, display your written materials - any pamphlets or brochures and samples of bulletins or newsletters. Have plenty of business cards, preferably in the form of a rolodex card. Display your website URL and e-mail address prominently on both the exhibit board and your business card. Clinicians may not pick up much written material, but they appreciate a card or a pointer to a website. Give clinicians a reason to tell their patients about you and focus on what's interesting to the clinicians. If you say, "We offer support services," you will not elicit as much interest as if you say, "We are enrolling affected individuals in a registry."

Get contact information from clinicians and consider staying in touch with them with a regular communication of some sort. If you wish to use contact information for this purpose, tell them how often they can expect to hear from you (for example, quarterly or after your group's annual meeting). Do not take names of affected individuals from clinicians. It violates a person's right to confidentiality if a clinician reveals their name and diagnosis. Collect contact information only from individuals who have given written consent for you to have their information in your database or registry.

Some groups wonder how to make these meetings affordable. First, make sure you are not paying full exhibit fees - remind the professional association that you are a nonprofit organization, exhibiting as a service to their members. Next, find other lay group leadership attending the meeting - try to share rooms and find ways to cut costs together. Book travel on the Internet - it is very often much less expensive. And look for discount airlines and alternate airports. Try to get grants to cover the cost for your professional education program.

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