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Academy News: February 2006

My first Annual Meeting
By Geetu Deogun, MD

Getting up at 5:00 am on a Friday morning brought back painful memories from residency; but the fact that I was catching a flight to San Antonio, TX, and leaving the unforgiving Chicago, IL, cold for the weekend, made up for the early start to the day. I was excited. This was my first Annual Meeting, and I was ready to jump in headfirst and absorb as much information as I could.

To say the least, the Annual Meeting was intense and quick-paced. After registering and receiving the Final Program, I went to the FIT luncheon. Friday was nice because the day was set up to include symposiums specifically for Fellows-in-Training (FIT). We were able to sit in a conference hall for the afternoon, and various speakers came to us. We ended up receiving a great overview of current allergy and immunology basics.

My advice to any FIT attending the Annual Meeting for the first time would be to make sure you attend a varied selection of seminars, and decide the night before which seminars you want to go to. Make sure you go to both the clinical and research seminars—there is so much to learn!

You might consider dividing up the weekend into four time periods. On Saturday morning go to the Plenary Session, and then spend the rest of the morning on immunology topics. Spend the afternoon on allergy topics and leave room for a workshop. On Sunday morning, go to the Plenary Session again, and then spend the rest of the morning on something that specifically interests you, such as mastocytosis, ABPA, etc. Spend Sunday afternoon at the FIT poster sessions, FIT talks and in the exhibit hall.

All in all, the experience of going to my first Annual Meeting was very invigorating, and I am grateful to the AAAAI for sponsoring the travel grant that allowed for the trip. I met FITs from all over the country and made great contacts. In the evening, I went out with these newfound friends, and learned how other programs work and how the job market is.

Make sure you always have a pen, paper and business cards, because you never know when you’re going to meet an allergist looking for a new associate or potential partner.

For a complete listing and description of all Annual Meeting programs and events, review your Preliminary Program or visit the Annual Meeting Web site, www.annualmeeting.aaaai.org.

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