I just couldn’t get my head into the game of live tweeting effectively this week so I thought i would pause and catch up and share some of my highlights from our writing and communication this week at #AMWA2019 
My 1st session was the update of AMA Manuel of Style from the JAMA editors. Lots of useful update info shared and I appreciate the arrangement to get AMWA members a discount for the 11th edition. I loved the guidance for SM referencing, the space in temps (37 °F) not so much.😉
But lots of very useful content for AMWA members throughout the session. I really appreciate being able to drop the hyphen out of email and removal of the punctuation after DOI to prevent breaking links. Punctuation after url has always been annoying. Good riddance to that!
I choice the leadership session because the title intrigued me. The session was great. I really found it very useful and insightful.
Linda Yih did an excellent job facilitating the session by being very inclusive with her audience as she presented her material. Reviewing my notes, this bit of advice for leaders really resonated for me:
Some great interactions in this session
But my favorite take away from it was:
When you heard the contributions that were made by each Of our award winners for #AMWA2019 you realize each of them has well deserved the recognition.
But I was especially happy to see three people it has been my please to serve with on AMWA committees over the years to have their contributions recognized at #AMWA2019
We also had a lot of fun with our charity that we sponsored this year and I was very surprised and pleased that the San Diego Zoo Kids program brought some of their animals for us see as we learned about their program to teach hospitalized children around the country
As someone who has spent most of my career working in infectious diseases and vaccine production and technology I was thrilled to have the opportunity to meet and her @DrPaulOffit share his story from scientist to science advocate
I also learned there are a couple of his books I haven’t read but I am interested in doing so
We quite enjoyed the humor brought to stage as he reminded us of the damage that the disgraced Lancet article by Wakefield that was finally retracted had done pro tip from Dr Offit “try to have more subjects in your study than authors on your paper”.
He also pointed out to us that really hit home “the training to be a scientist is just the opposite of the training to deal with the media” - an important gap that we need to address in advancing science communication over the noise our there
On Thursday afternoon I attended the Med Write Talks session. Kudos to Michelle Sauer for developing this session format this year’s conference. I think it is a great edition. I hope it is back next year and expanded if possible.
The three on Thursday afternoon were great. Joan Affleck’s talk was a great call to arms for us in this current environment we live in where science is being hijacked by the deniers
April Reynolds shared her story of burnout and a very important cautionary lesson for all of us. She even worked in a shout-out for one of my favorite science communicators @ZDoggMD and reminded us about how moral injury is harming so many in our medical professions
Then the session wrapped with a great story of collaboration leading to success from @MedCaseWriter and I learned 3 things that will stick with me: reputational marketing, a great quote from Thomas Fuller, and know to distinguish reflex from reaction (I can see a use for both😂)
My last session on Thursday was ABCs for stress management led by Reggie Wilson, president of our Florida chapter. Very useful information and the best visual for inertia I’ve ever seen
Reggie reminding us about how we are causing our own stress. Be sure and check out his fitness for freelance program fitforfreelance.com/yes/
Thursday night was Florida Chapter group dinner and it was great fun as usual. It’s a reminder if you don’t make networking with colleagues a priority - you aren’t conferencing correctly!
Friday AM started a little tense for me as my voice was clearly failing when I got up but I had a breakfast roundtable to lead so it was “suck it up, Buttercup time” and I am glad I did because we had a great breakfast club.
I attended the AM session leadership style by @robinwhitsell and it was a fantastic presentation on situational leadership and self-awareness & an opportunity to watch a master facilitator in action.
Robin is a master storyteller and I am all about a good story. That’s why I always look forward to her sessions which are insightful and entertaining. She never disappoints and ....
she always has a great dose of humor for her audience as she inspires them
Then on Friday afternoon was another Med Write Session. Ashley Hay, inspired us with her unexpected journey from Nurse to patient wth a chronic illness into a medical science communicator. The perspective and passion she has is extremely inspirational
Then Christina Ohnsman shared her fascinating journey from being raised by science deniers to become a physician and then a champion for science advocates sharing effective techniques for addressing science deniers from anti-vaxers to climate change deniers
I was the presenter of the last talk of the session and I was spoke about a topic I am passionate about- bringing the story narrative back into science to make our data more impactful and our teaching more effective. I’m all about the data, but a narrative helps data spark action
I was also able to share my story about the role story has played in my life; how my family, my grandmothers in particular, started me on a journey towards a career in science; even though they were not scientists, but proponents of science and science education
I’m towards the end of my career journey - or at least this leg of it - but I wanted to share with folks what an effective tool science storytelling has been for me and I hope they find it useful
I also wanted to point our audience towards some science communicators who are effective communicators in the art of science storytelling.
The good news is there are a lot more great science communicators out there, the bad news I could include on a couple of slides - but I tried to give a variety reflecting styles that folks could explore for themselves as they develope their own.
It was a great conference and I not only learned value information in my sessions, but the real value was in the conversations I had with so many colleagues I spoke with - some I already knew and some I just met. That’s what is so great about a conference
The real value is in all those conversations you have, the professional friendships you develop and grow, the opportunity to learn from colleagues & share what you know with others. These events don’t just happen so a special thanks to all who were involved in making it happen.
