Inside the Annual Meeting
because our meeting is in December – a
Christmas parade that will shut down the
streets our shuttle buses are taking. That’s
a problem.
The last time the meeting took place
in New Orleans, we were prepared
for one parade and traffic congestion
around a Saints football game. Then we
discovered a second, surprise parade
scheduled for the same day. Suddenly, we
had to scramble to find a different route
on the fly.
We also need to make sure our
speakers arrive so that people have
something to watch! The ASH
meetings team has the speaker roster
and their travel itineraries. On the
first days of the meeting, we are
double-checking everything: Did they
arrive in the city? Did they check into
their hotels? Did they upload their
presentations to the system? Then, in
each session room, a staff member
is assigned to find everyone who’s
scheduled to speak and make sure
they are where they need to be.
“[Everything]
happens in
a disciplined,
orderly
fashion; there
are certain
intervals of
organized
chaos, but
that’s what
makes it fun.”
—WILLIAM REED
One year, when weather caused
flight delays and cancellations,
one of our keynote speakers went
missing. About 15 minutes before
he was supposed to go on stage, we
still didn’t know if he was in the city!
We put out an all-points-bulletin for
anyone who could spot this person in
a crowd and, luckily, we found him
just in time. I cannot confirm or deny
this statement, but I may have had to
straighten his tie as I pushed him out
on the stage.
There’s always down-to-the-wire
fun and excitement, and we just try to
be prepared to handle it.
In those situations, I always think
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ASH Clinical News
about my mother: Her purse seemingly
held everything you would ever need.
If a rattlesnake bit you, she would have
a remedy for it. During the annual
meeting, I end up playing that same
role. My suit pockets are packed with
all of this “in-case-of-emergency” stuff.
I start the meeting with a big supply of
ASH lapel pins in my pockets to give
to any of our ASH officers, but the pins
always seem to disappear by the end of
the meeting. I guess they make good
souvenirs!
How is the annual meeting program
developed?
Pulling off an event as large as the ASH
annual meeting takes a village. ASH has
an incredible group of volunteer leaders
that work throughout the year to put
together the program. The president
proposes topics, speakers, and themes;
our Scientific and Educational Affairs
Committees propose sessions; and our
abstract reviewers score more than 6,000
abstracts. (For an in-depth look at this
process, see the SIDEBAR , “A Rehash of
the ASH Dash” on page 80). All of this
is reviewed and recommended by the
Program Committee, then approved by
the Executive Committee.
In September, the abstract notification
process generates another wave of